Expressive Arts Therapy: a personal healing journey

Five intimate and compelling essays on the process of becoming a therapist. These essays are intimate accounts of transformative experiences involving art, creativity and imagination. This essays are: "The immaterial fish; a therapeutic journey of imaginal transformation" talks about dreams; how I was able to work with a recurring dream in waking life and transform it completely in the dreamtime; it talks about the independent life of images and it is a great example of how the imagination works as a tool for healing and transcendence. "Moving in my dreams; the relationship between movement and consciousness" talks about the powerful relationship between movement and consciousness; it relates a variety of experiences in which I was able to change my perspective and my feelings around an issue through moving intentionally. It also talks my passionate connection to dreams and the transference of knowledge and experience from the dream realm to the waking life. "Imaginary encounters with five psychological geniuses and how I changed my – troubling – spending habit" talks about an exercise of imagination, in which I psychoanalyzed myself through five therapeutic schools of thought to try and find a solution to a not-so-dignifying spending habit. And it worked! "My experience of trauma and recovery through Expressive Arts Therapy" talks about my experience of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Panic Disorder and how I helped my recovery process through art making, even before I knew Expressive Arts Therapy. "The gifts of Expressive Arts Therapy" talks about my experience doing a therapy practicum with survivors of torture, with children in an inner city school and with adults who have a mental health diagnosis. This essay relates individual sessions with particular clients, exemplifying the way I conducted my EXAT therapeutic practice. It also includes powerful insights and thoughts I had during this challenging time. I hope you enjoy these essays as much as I enjoyed writing them and may they inspire you to express your uniqueness and your individuality through art. “Art is only art if it heals” Alejandro Jodorowsky