The Arts and Happiness

While I was still an Ugly Duckling, secretly reading novels by torchlight underneath my bedcovers, I discovered a world of likeminded Swans, where my spirit belonged. My wild emotions resonated with the music I listened to throughout my teens. I know I am preaching to the converted with this blog, however research always adds another level of credibility to something we seem to know but have no evidence for.

Recently I stumbled on a collection of studies by Dr Jess Bone, a Research Fellow in Statistics/Epidemiology in the Department of Behavioural Science and Health (UCL) and a member of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre on Arts and Health. Bone has conducted extensive research with colleagues on the arts and well-being.

These studies include all the arts and not necessarily arts as therapy…

The Treatment of ASD and ADHD with Sensorimotor Art Therapy

Many times I read the mental health records of children and teens and shudder at the long list of ASD and ADHD related diagnoses, while I wonder how much these young clients’ learning and behavioural difficulties are in fact caused by developmental trauma. For young children, threat is not about what is actually dangerous, but about what their brain perceives as such. This can happen from real threats or perceived threats – the brain will respond the same way to both…

Pendulation as a Core Trauma Healing Model

The term Pendulation was coined by Peter Levine (Levine 2010), describing a process of oscillating between two vortexes, a trauma vortex, and a healing vortex, to titrate the recall of stressful events. Pendulating between fearful and hopeful or joyful memories makes the trauma therapy process manageable, rather than re-traumatising. Levine’s insight into Pendulation has informed my approach to trauma therapy fundamentally. Thousands of therapists and clients have benefitted from this approach…

Healing my Broken Wrist with Guided Drawing

I have created my way through many a crisis in my life. Art Therapy has always been my go-to. Recently I broke my wrist quite badly, it required surgery. I now have permanent hardware in it, and it has taken some getting used to.

As soon as I was able to bear any movement, I started practicing Guided Drawing.

Bilateral Drawing with Closed Eyes

One of the features of Guided Drawing is that clients draw with their eyes closed. This is a concept foreign to the visual arts, where seeing is traditionally of core significance. It is also the one question inevitably raised in every Guided Drawing training: “Do all clients have to close their eyes when they engage in Guided Drawing?” The answer is: “of course not.” The closed eyes are a tool. Just like crayons and finger paints offer different haptic experiences, the closed or open eyes offer a different focus. The client either looks inside or outside. Is the client’s need for implicit connection with the body or explicit orientation in the world? Is the therapeutic goal nervous system regulation through self-perception or through a relational encounter?

Healing boundaries: a teenager's experience of art therapy integrated with Somatic Experiencing

“Initially I thought the art therapy sessions were useless. I really didn't want to go. Then after a year I began making great strides. I started to open up more to others, to be more emotional, to express my ideas. I began to see my life in colour, instead of just grey. I am more controlled now.” (Federico Gentile)

This paper is based on an interview with 13-year-old Federico Gentile (pseudonym). He has had weekly individual art therapy sessions for two years. Art therapy began fifteen months after he began living with his adoptive parents.

Trauma can be defined as the rupture of a boundary on many different levels (physio-logical, psychological, social). A common thread throughout the sessions was the testing and re-pairing of boundaries. The therapist herself found it necessary to break two boundaries: giving the user a gift and integrating Somatic Experiencing (SE) techniques from outside our field…

Myelination, Mobilisation and Sensorimotor Art Therapy

In the recent decade neuroscience has significantly contributed to our comprehension of the brain-body connection. It has validated many aspects of therapies, including Sensorimotor Art Therapy, and enhanced our understanding of the need for body-focused approaches to treat traumatized clients. Stephen Porges’ development of the Polyvagal Theory (2007 Porges), and his ground-breaking explorations of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), have expanded the knowledge of how our physiology detects and processes existential danger and safety. Porges identified two motor branches of the vagus nerve, that provide both motor and sensory pathways between brainstem structures and visceral organs. Consciously working with these sensory and motor aspects is at the core of Sensorimotor Art Therapy.

Trauma-proofing Children

The distressing images emerging from the war in Ukraine, and a recent discussion with a group of social workers, youth workers, art therapists and play therapists in Lismore have prompted me to reflect on how to best support children in crisis. Hundreds of children have lost their homes in the recent floods in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales. Thousands are fleeing the utter devastation in Eastern Europe. Not only are these children displaced and have gone through an overwhelming event, but they have also lost the entire infrastructure of their community, their homes, schools and play grounds. They have lost the connection with friends and possibly family members. Their entire life has been turned upside down in a wave of uncertainty and terror. So the big question is - how can we support these children in a trauma-informed way that is age appropriate and healing…

An Initiatic Art Therapy Journey

Sometimes training to work with vulnerable and historically adversely impacted people is perplexing. This is why after 30+ years in the Community Services sector my eternal curiosity was focused on how to best support my clients; how could I assist them to embrace the healthiest and safest version of themselves?

Then I discovered the world of Art Therapy - and specifically Sensorimotor Art Therapy. Through my work I had already trained in numerous modalities and intervention-based options, however I still remained somewhat frustrated. Finally I realised that in my personal practices I had been utilising these methodologies to varying degrees. It was time to start some consolidation…

Safety is Predictability

I still remember the times, when you sent a letter by snail mail, and it would take days, if not weeks, for a response. These days I check my emails ten times per day, even on a weekend. We have lost a lot of breathing space within one generation. Is our global nervous system struggling to keep up with the pace of instant connectedness? As much as I embrace the amazing advances of internet-life online, it seems, we need a reset, a restart of our way of being. Many of us certainly need a rest at the moment. We need to exhale. We are exhausted from the undercurrent of constant threat.

The Black Madonna

The Black Madonna is a powerful symbol of the woman as divine. She represents the archetype of the wise old woman, a conveyor of ancient wisdom.

Owning Your Shadow

How many times have we referred to Alice in Wonderland in the past couple of years? Don’t we all know someone who disappeared down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatures and world views? There are the vaccinated and antivaxxers, there are those in detention versus the freedom advocates. The continuously moving Covid19 goal posts appear similar to the unpredictable Queen’s Croquet Ground. Heads get chopped off, jobs are lost – and the Cheshire Cat grins. In our virtual world, reality has become a very pliable material indeed – with painful consequences.

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