Atlas›Domains›Domain VIII
Domain VIII of XVI

Creative & expressive arts therapies

203guides
3,806weighted interventions
1982median founding year
314425mean Agape · Logos · Mythos

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Domain synthesis

What "healing" means here

The domain holds several different ideas of healing. In the psychodynamic arts therapies, healing means insight and a lower level of distress. The image can "hold the transference", so feelings the client cannot yet bear can be worked on inside the picture VIII-008 VIII-001. A medium also gives symbolisation to people who have little access to words VIII-182 VIII-017, and in Kleinian play the analyst interprets anxieties from the first session VIII-149. A second family holds that making art is healing in itself. This is Kramer's "art as therapy" VIII-002; for humanistic authors and Natalie Rogers the creative process is itself transformative VIII-006 VIII-180 VIII-012. Developmental models aim to restart growth and build secure attachment VIII-057 VIII-161 VIII-166 VIII-172. Neurologic and medical models aim to restore function: speech after stroke, gait, an infant's self-regulation, breath control VIII-055 VIII-056 VIII-074 VIII-198. Cognitive-behavioural strands target symptoms directly VIII-128 VIII-139 VIII-167. Several models treat healing as social repair. Community music therapy seeks integration and participation VIII-058, liberation music therapy and Boal seek critical consciousness VIII-061 VIII-118, and Pellizzari treats health as a social construction VIII-073. Five-tone music is said to regulate qi VIII-083, and raga chikitsa works through rasa VIII-082. The sacred entries describe consecration, blessing, prayer and ceremony, not therapy VIII-191 VIII-192 VIII-193 VIII-194.

The domain also disputes what counts as therapy at all. Stern says the Closlieu "is not a therapy" VIII-015. DanceAbility rejects the "therapeutic" label VIII-102. The AATA separates colouring from art therapy VIII-035, and arts-on-prescription and community arts programmes state that they are not therapy VIII-195 VIII-196 VIII-197. Collier aims for "positive mood, pleasure and rejuvenation" rather than venting VIII-186. Klein and Anna Freud disagreed over whether young children form a transference VIII-149 VIII-148.

What "the self" or "the person" is here

Jungian lines picture a psyche with an unconscious that shows itself in images. Jung treated the circle as a picture of the self VIII-020 VIII-154 VIII-163. Silveira held that psychosis shakes the foundations of psychic life but leaves affect intact VIII-017. Movement traditions treat the body as the place where a life is held. Tamalpa says the body holds a person's whole life experience VIII-095, ADMP UK names an "inter-relationship between psyche, soma, and spirit" VIII-088, and Stokoe saw the person as one physical, social, emotional, mental and spiritual unit VIII-097. Deuser starts from touch VIII-022. Nervous-system models read symptoms as autonomic dysregulation VIII-171 VIII-078, and ITR describes stereotyped survival responses VIII-011. Many founders assume that everyone is creative: Beuys's "Jeder Mensch ist ein Künstler" VIII-041, Rogers VIII-180, Stern's abilities that culture has stifled VIII-015, and AWA's "artist in all writers" VIII-134. Moreno and Landy picture a self made of roles bound together by tele VIII-104 VIII-108. Story-based guides see identity as narrated VIII-144 VIII-137 VIII-127. Play therapies see a child who judges their worth from how others accept them VIII-157, a child who is socially embedded and acts toward goals VIII-164, or a child whose contact and self-boundary need strengthening VIII-162. Stige and the community music therapists place the person inside culture and relationships VIII-059 VIII-058, and Kopytin uses an "eco-human" view VIII-183. Cosmological images appear in the TCM link between tones and organs VIII-083, in Keyes's "natural energy flows" VIII-080 and in Adler's "embodied witness consciousness" VIII-089.

Mechanisms of change the domain names

Externalisation, distance and containment. The guides name the picture, mask, puppet, film, tale, comic panel and song as ways to hold feeling at a safe distance VIII-008 VIII-123 VIII-143 VIII-145 VIII-030 VIII-063. Mediating or intermediary objects. These include Roussillon's médium malléable, Benenzon's intermediary object, Rojas-Bermúdez's mask, and Moriya's collage as a "portable sandbox" VIII-182 VIII-049 VIII-123 VIII-024. Attunement and matching. The iso principle meets the client's present state and then shifts it VIII-051. Orff therapy moves from ISO to provocation VIII-057, Kestenberg names attunement and adjustment VIII-091, and NICU work relies on communicative musicality VIII-074. Relational and mentalizing work inside the therapist–client–artwork triangle VIII-009 VIII-008 VIII-032. Interpretation of transference VIII-149 VIII-048. Attention and self-regulation VIII-035 VIII-010 VIII-033 VIII-187. Exposure and putting experience into words. Examples are written exposure VIII-128, improvisation as graduated exposure VIII-116, Levy's release play VIII-155 and Pennebaker's coherent story VIII-127. Shechtman names identification, catharsis and insight VIII-140. Neural rerouting and entrainment. Melodic intonation is said to use right-hemisphere networks VIII-056, other guides name rhythmic entrainment VIII-055 VIII-081, and Spintge works on rhythm variability VIII-062. Spontaneity in surplus reality VIII-104. Witnessing and performance VIII-089 VIII-021 VIII-109 VIII-115 VIII-120. Critical consciousness and social capital VIII-061 VIII-118 VIII-058 VIII-205. Balancing of qi and rasa VIII-083 VIII-082.

Shared techniques

Media are this domain's main technique family. The guides use paint, clay, sand and miniatures, collage, photographs, film, digital tools, textiles, cooking and games VIII-022 VIII-152 VIII-024 VIII-026 VIII-029 VIII-032 VIII-186 VIII-188 VIII-177. Breath and voice appear in Cane's breath and vowel warm-ups, toning, Voice Movement Therapy, vocal holding and Singing for Lung Health VIII-003 VIII-080 VIII-079 VIII-060 VIII-198. Laughter yoga lengthens the exhale VIII-184. Attention appears in MBAT, Zentangle and calligraphy VIII-010 VIII-033 VIII-187. Imagery appears in GIM and ITR VIII-047 VIII-011. Movement appears in the Chace circle, Laban analysis and Authentic Movement VIII-084 VIII-090 VIII-089. Touch appears in Clay Field, Theraplay and DanceAbility VIII-022 VIII-161 VIII-102. Story and word appear in journaling, poetry, bibliotherapy and storymaking VIII-130 VIII-131 VIII-138 VIII-144. Ritual includes de-roling and closure VIII-108 VIII-123, Zentangle's opening and closing gratitude VIII-033, and the circle dance's decorated centre VIII-100. Group and community formats include drumming circles, choirs, hip hop groups, Photolangage and Playback VIII-081 VIII-198 VIII-064 VIII-028 VIII-117. Practice includes morning pages and home playtimes VIII-147 VIII-159.

Developmental or stage models

Drama and psychodrama. Emunah's five-phase model and Landy's eight-step role method VIII-108, Moreno's warm-up, action and sharing VIII-104, TSM's three-stage TSIRA map VIII-105, and Gold's seven stages for Self-Revelatory Performance VIII-109. Movement. Chace's warm-up, theme development and closure VIII-084, Meekums's four-stage creative-process model VIII-088, Espenak's restructuring and integration phases VIII-087, and the four phases of Ammon's analytic-structural dance therapy VIII-094. Music. Bruscia's three relationship stages for Alvin VIII-043, Nordoff-Robbins's four stages for leading crying into singing VIII-044, Tüpker's four treatment steps VIII-053 and the three levels of melodic intonation therapy VIII-056. Developmental sequences. Lowenfeld and Brittain VIII-006, the ETC levels VIII-007, Kellogg's Great Round VIII-020, the Kestenberg developmental sequence VIII-091, DIR's nine FEDCs VIII-172, Moustakas's levels of emotional process VIII-156 and Knell's four stages VIII-167. Procedural sequences. Johnson's five filmmaking stages VIII-029, StoryCenter's Seven Steps VIII-136, Hynes's four-step process VIII-138, Mazza's RES model VIII-131, the six sandtray phases or steps VIII-153 VIII-152, Birren's nine themes VIII-135, the nine stages of neurographics VIII-034 and Cameron's twelve weeks VIII-147. Traditional training. Sema rests on long training in lodges VIII-194, and hataałii train through years of apprenticeship VIII-193.

Distinctive contribution

This domain puts a made thing (image, sound, movement, role, story or object) between people. That gives the domain a non-verbal and distanced route to experience that word-based therapies mostly lack. The domain also maps the borders of its own field more carefully than other domains do. It separates credentialed arts therapy from arts-in-health, self-help and creative practice, and it treats sacred arts as belonging to their own communities, to be respected and referred to rather than borrowed VIII-195 VIII-191 VIII-193.

All 203 guides in this domain

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