Arts in Healing

Introduction to the Therapeutic and Healing Nature of the Arts--Music

Taught by: Jim Borling

Music has been used as a healing agent throughout history. As music can create a social experience, music can also help each individual connect with inner resources. The simple experience of music-making is therapeutic; yet music is often a reflection of our inner life as well. The Art of Music will be discussed from a variety of human domains including: social, emotional, physiological, cognitive, and spiritual. Guided Imagery Music (GIM) will be discussed.

Main ideas presented:

• Music as a healing agent will be discussed.
• Evidence of music’s impact on a variety of human domains will be demonstrated with a brief experiential to assist participants in connecting with the didactic material.

Introduction to the Therapeutic and Healing Nature of the Arts--Visual Arts

Taught by: Mindy Jacobson-Levy

The focus of this presentation will be on the use of the art psychotherapy process [ARTB4WORDS ™] as an instrument for healing. Participants will discover how severe trauma affects children in terms of the disconnection from the self (body) and the relationship between the self-others, and how this manifests into adulthood. While the use of words may later serve as a bridge in the articulation of one’s personal story, initially imagery is more likely to serve as a protected venue within which to explore unsafe childhood experiences. The value of art making in therapy and in the community will be identified and elaborated upon. Several key graphic and behavioral components that signal the need for intervention will also be illuminated. Participants will also engage in an experiential exercise aimed at connecting with others through art.

Main ideas presented:

• Severe childhood trauma prompts the individual to develop unhealthy coping strategies for dealing with overwhelmingly distressing situations (eating disorders, self-harming behaviours, disconnections).
• Without external support, the child’s voice goes underground, and barriers (including dissociation) develop in order to defend the thoughts/feelings that hide behind one’s “emotional walls”.
• Art making is a safe way to “disclose without talking”, as it bypasses loyalties to perpetrators.
• The creative art process is also a way to reconnect to the self and one’s community as the language of art is universal, timeless, and serves as a record to be witnessed. Developmentally, what we visualize is encoded before it’s vocalized…which is why ARTB4WORDS™ helps one traverse trauma and heal

Introduction to the Therapeutic and Healing Nature of the Arts--Movement

Taught by: Ellen Schelly-Hill

This panel presentation will focus on how the therapeutic relationship and creative movement process make contributions to cultivating resilience in at-risk youth. The presenter will make reference to the impact of trauma, the healing factors and ethical principles involved in the arts facilitator/ mentoring relationship, and the cultivation of movement resources that can serve as protective factors to mediate trauma and risk.

Major theories/concepts presented:

• The Risk/Resilience Model.
• Developmental impact of trauma.
• Ethical issues/principles in the therapeutic relationship.
• Healing processes in dance/movement therapy.

Definitions:

• Resilience- The capacity to thrive in the presence of trauma and multiple risk factors.
• Protective Factors- The bio-psycho-social resources and skills which mediate risk factors.
• Self-Regulation- Ability to regulate body-emotional-behavioural responses to internal and environmental stimuli.
• Rhythmic Synchrony- Moving with others in a shared repetitive pulse of ordered time often in response to auditory stimuli.
• Modulation of Movement Expression- Incremental changes along a continuum of movement expression within the movement factors of Flow, Space, Weight, and Time.
• Self regulation as a movement resource.

Neurobiology of Trauma in the Arts

Taught by: Gene Ann Behrens

Recent research and theory on trauma stress suggest that individuals with unresolved trauma respond with heightened emotions that are difficult to control (van der Kolk, 2006), and that for children dealing with trauma stress, these responses influence their neurodevelopment (Perry, 2001). Results from these studies also indicate that for people for whom a trauma experience remains unresolved, their response to the trauma often is due to a lack of integration of their sensory and emotional responses related to the experience. Based on these results, researchers propose that talking therapy only creates situations in which the individuals relive their traumatic responses (Clark, et al., 2003); talking through their experiences results in them reliving their traumatic experience and their unresolved and uncontrolled emotional responses. Instead, researchers recommend that these individuals need experiences that assist them in reintegrating their physiological and emotional responses connected to the traumatic experience – such as those found in the arts (van der Kolk, 2008). Implications for the arts will be discussed along with example experiences.

Learning Outcomes for Participants:

• Attendees will recall key concepts about what occurs in the brain of individuals dealing with trauma stress.
• Attendees will recall key concepts about the influence of trauma on a child’s developing brain.
• Attendees will identify why talking therapy may not be the best initial therapy.
• Attendees will identify why body-oriented, bottom-up work through the arts can support the early therapeutic needs of individuals dealing with trauma stress.
• Attendees will identify at least one arts experience that would support emotional coping needs of individuals dealing with trauma stress.

Major concepts/theories presented:

• Concepts related to trauma stress
• High incidence of trauma stress
• Summary of research on neurobiological changes as a result of trauma stress Summary of research on influence of trauma on the child’s developing brain
• Top-down versus bottom-up processing in relationship to trauma treatment
• Potential benefits of arts-based approaches for individuals dealing with trauma stress