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Expressive Art Therapy Workshop (report)
Activity : Expressive Art Therapy Workshop
Date : 22nd February 2020
Time : 10:30am-03:00 pm
February 22, 2020 turned out to be a very positive day, thanks to Mrs. Manju Khaden and Mr. Khaden. These facilitators of the Expressive Artwork Therapy opened the session with anextremely warm greeting to everyone followed by individual introductions of all the participants. They clarified the tone of freedom, non-judgment and safety from the very beginning and maintained the same throughout the session. The theme of the therapy was Self-Compassion. This concept was broken down into 3 parts and the session was also divided into phases accordingly.
I. Recognising emotions and befriending them The facilitators distributed drums to everyone and a team-building exercise took place.
Everyone was to beat their own beat and not talk, and then drum together with
everyone as well. This enhanced the realization that each person was alone but also together at the same time. After this, the facilitators portrayed six gestures of self-love and went around asking everyone what their intensions from this session were. This was followed by a few Tai Chi exercises. The following aspects were covered:
Emotion: Scribble on the newspaper using 2 pastels representing any two negative emotions.
Message to Emotions: Write what you tell your negative emotions.
Embodiment of pain: Draw and depict where does it hurt when you experience these emotions.
This was followed by distribution of a sensory bag which contained a stimulus for all the 5 senses.
II. Recognize that you are not alone in experiencing these emotions Using the newspaper (and/or pastels), we were asked to create a representation of interconnectedness, on half the chart. Also, a prayer was to be written which promotes contentment.
III. Loving yourself Finally, the third phase was marked by creativity and pastels were used to portray self-compassion on the rest of the chart. Then, in a group of two, students were asked to discuss coping strategies.
Everyone’s artwork was displayed and the session ended with a few more drumming exercises.
All in all, it was an enriching experience and the session was packed with many little lessons.
Expressive artwork is a rejuvenating technique which brings out your inner child.
