What is Expressive Arts Therapy?

Expressive arts therapy (EXAT) is a field of humanistic psychotherapy that uses various art modalities for healing, growth, and transformation. The arts include drama/improv, music/sound/voice, drawing, painting, sculpting, writing, poetry, journaling, ritual, and others. Using the arts provide unique inroads to places inside that we may have locked away. Sometimes we don’t have words for what is going on inside. Or maybe we are afraid to talk about what happened. The arts can give voice to express what is unspeakable. The final outcome that is created often provides great insight. Yet in EXAT, the emphasis is on the process not the product. This is different than some traditional styles of therapy that use art to diagnose or treat.

The expressive arts in therapy are built on the understanding that when we tap into our emotions through creative means, we are able to see new choices. Not just a solution in the face of a problem, but often a unique and different one, maybe one that we didn’t see yesterday. The expressive arts provide new entry points for thinking or exploring a situation, be it past, present, or future.

(Dreams also do this, allowing us to tap into our innate creativity so we can see past limitation and into possibility.).

-Libra