Expressive Arts Counseling
"Montage"

Talking is one or most frequently used skills. We can learn a lot from expressing ourselves, saying what we think. And we can learn a good deal from listening to each other. Traditional counseling is like that, we talk and attempt to listen closely when another is talking.

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Sometimes, listening to what another says can tell us what we need to know. But many times, we have a vague sense that something is missing. We hear the words, but they do not really register with us as completely true. It is not so much that we are hearing a lie, but that there are dimensions of feeling missing, as well as those things and ideas that cannot be put into words. If, for example, you described a beautiful sunset to me, I would be building my own ideas of that sunset based on what you tell me. In the end, the images in our minds would be images of a sunset we have seen, but likely very different from each other’s.

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So, we are seeking more information. I don’t just want to hear a verbal description of what is important or what matters to you. I want to, if possible, involve my other senses. I want to see it, listen to it, touch it, perhaps smell it. That is where expressive arts and therapy come together; they yield multiple ways in which someone can communicate what they are thinking or feeling. If someone says to me that they are really angry, my question is still, “how angry?” I am also thinking, “what does that anger look like, or feel like, or sound like?” This is why I am an expressive arts counselor, and why it is so important, and so useful to me. As they say, sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Truly.

That leads to what it is like to do therapy or sessions with an expressive arts counselor. We talk of course, but we also create images and sounds, and sometimes we create a story, involving a character or a projection of ourselves.

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Oftentimes a person is reluctant to see me because they feel they are not creative, or have no art skills. What stands here is that that really has nothing to do with it. We are not attempting to make “good art.” We are looking for what shows up on the page, or the surface. That might be a stick figure, or possible a simple stroke of color. Again, it is not about creating good art. In fact, a skilled artist can have a more difficult time expressing themselves in art, because their energy can go into creating something that looks worthy of their skill.

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The same is true when we explore music and express ourselves with it. It is about the things we hear and express. A gifted musician can play something impressive to listen to and observe, but that basically just tells me they have practiced a lot.