The Primary Shapes in Guided Drawing Series: The Bowl

As I have promised over the next few months I will share more insights about a few of the main shapes within Guided Drawing with my Primary Shapes in Guided Drawing blog series. Following The Arch last month and continuing now with The Bowl.

The structure of Guided Drawing is based on a number of primary shapes, which all have a universal, archetypal quality. A structured starting-point for fearful clients can be to practice one or two of the primary shapes, as instructed by the therapist. These movements can be taken into repetition, until clients feel confident enough to start on their own. Gradually many shapes come into play to tell their story.

Another less directive beginning is to just flow with whatever the hands want to do in accordance with the client’s body-perception. In this case one will get a mixture of shapes that will want to be sorted and understood. In both cases clients experience a number of different movements which appear on the paper as shapes. The therapist, in addition, has the option of introducing certain shapes as a non-verbal intervention.

Such interventions, drawn in repetition, will provoke a different felt sense, an option of change away from the helpless, overwhelmed, down-trodden, angry, terrified or dissociated state the client knows so well. This new felt sense may lead to reviewing old belief systems or simply practicing a different option to life…

The lowest chakra is not located in our feet, but at the base of the spine; as such the pelvis represents the inner ground, our sense of being settled and at home within. It cradles our centre of gravity, the point of core strength.

Physiology: The largest bowl we experience in our body is the pelvis, and while there are other places in the body that can be drawn as a bowl such as the diaphragm or the back of the head, the most common association with this shape is the pelvic floor. The pelvic bowl is the space in which we settle down to relax or which we dissociate, when we are ‘upset’. It is where our spine is anchored. As embryos we are held in the womb, supported by the pelvis. It is where the gut instinct of motherly, protective security or the lack of it is experienced. The attachment with our primary caregiver shapes the complex matrix of our implicit memory, our unquestioned, embodied identity. Early attachment shapes the relationship towards one’s own body and towards social contact. Later in life this area of trust is expanded into one’s own sexuality. The bowl evokes how much we can or cannot trust our gut feelings; and without this inner compass life gets pretty difficult to negotiate.

Primary shapes in Guided Drawing can be associated with the positions of the Chakras

The bowl shape in relation to the pelvis as the container for the abdomen evokes all issues associated with the dorsal vagal system. Here we can experience deep relaxation states in parasympathetic equilibrium, but also dissociation and fragmentation due to adverse experiences. On one hand rhythmic repetition of a rocking bowl shape allows clients to feel grounded, settled, relaxed and at one with themselves; they may even enter a meditative state or one of profound well being. However, metabolic shutdown due to shock triggered by the dorsal vagus nerve manifests as nausea and diarrhea in order to expel poisons and release toxins.

Clients suffering from complex trauma, in particular perinatal and early childhood trauma, and often as a consequence also of sexual trauma, tend to be dissociated from their abdomen; they can’t feel their body and are out of touch with their gut instinct, which helps us to stay safe. Infants have no option to fight or flee. Their tiny bodies may arch trying to get away, but will shut down, if the stressors are unbearable. Especially if parents are the source of trauma and toddlers are repeatedly and prolonged exposed to overwhelming situations their nervous systems never learns to settle. They are literally so upset that they are driven out of their bodies. Lifelong nervous system dysregulation is the result. (Gerhard 2004) (Heller and LaPierre 2012) (Karr-Morse 2012) (Levine 2015) (Van der Kolk 2014) These are the clients, who need drawing the bowl shape the most, in order to discover a sense of how to settle, however, they are also the ones most easily triggered, by this very motion…

Christian iconography: Madonna and child

Archetype: In Jungian psychology the pelvis is described as prima materia, as an undifferentiated, black, unconscious, and unredeemed substance that is eventually transformed into gold, into the philosopher’s stone, into consciousness and resurrection; Jung dedicated his most important books on psychology and alchemy to the subject matter.

In Yoga the base of the spine is the seat of the kundalini, the mystic snake, representing the complex energy systems that rise up through the chakras. In this context, the pelvic floor as the base chakra is the source of hidden spiritual forces awaiting their revelation.

Recurring images associated with the bowl are cradle, supporting arms or hands, nest, boat, cup, cauldron, and other containers. As a positive archetype the bowl is frequently described by clients as nourishing, protective, cradling, hugging; a shape that symbolises the Great Mother in her positive characteristics. It is the pure, receptive gesture of unconditional love represented by Mary, Sofia, Tara, Kwan-Yin and other female goddesses.

Intervention: The rhythmic movement of drawing the bowl evokes a swinging or cradling sensation, especially when the hands move in parallel. This synchronised motor impulse predominantly triggers an experience of wellbeing and safety. A parallel motion (Figures. 1 and 2) of the hands represents an unbroken relationship with the supportive, cradling ground. This quality can be consciously introduced through an intervention in situations of distress as a comforting gesture…

There is a surprising difference in drawing the bowl shape with both hands parallel, rocking rhythmically (Figure 1 and 2) to drawing it in a mirrored fashion with the hands opening and closing (Figure 3). This creates a shape that does not sit on the ground, or is the ground, but one that opens and closes towards it.

Feelings of threat and uncertainty occur much more easily with the MIRRORED MOTION where the hands connect and separate. Here the hands have a relationship of equals rather than the sensation in the rocking bowl of being contained like an infant. The left and right side of the body and both brain hemispheres come together and move apart. They may meet with ease at the lowest point or may avoid connection or crash into each other…

The bowl shape is the most important one of the female shapes. It is a valuable intervention tool to support clients when they need soothing, comforting and being held for parasympathetic settling…

Excerpts taken from Cornelia Elbrecht’s 2018 book:

Healing Trauma with Guided Drawing

From: Healing Trauma with Guided Drawing; Cornelia Elbrecht 2018

References:

Elbrecht, Cornelia. 2018. Healing trauma with guided drawing; a sensorimotor art therapy approach to bilateral body mapping. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.

—. 2006. The transformation journey. Todtmoos-Ruette: Johanna Nordlaender Verlag.

Gerhard, Sue. 2004. Why love matters; how affection shapes a baby's brain. London and New York: Routledge.

Heller, Lawrence, and Aline LaPierre. 2012. Healing developmental trauma; how early trauma affects self-regulation, self-image, and the capacity for relationsship. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books.

Jung, Carl, Gustav. 1990. Approaching the unconscious. In: Man and his symbols. London, New York: Penguin Books.

Karr-Morse, Robin: Wiley, Meredith. 2012. Scared sick; the role of childhood trauma in adult disease. New York: Basic Books.

Levine, Peter. 2015. Trauma and memory; brain and body in search of the living past. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books.

Van der Kolk, Bessel. 2014. The body keeps the score. New York: Viking, Penguin Group.