Creative Compassion for Peacebuilding enhances self-empathy and empathy for others
Take Your Step to Relational Empathy
Start with self-paced Creative Compassion Practice
Freda Blob, CP, ED, AT, PCT, GDP
In the arts, Relational Empathy involves tuning in to everything an artwork offers. This includes aesthetics that align with your personal interests, as well as those that extend beyond them. Artistic relational empathy involves shifting between these two types of aesthetics with empathic curiosity. Rather than getting stuck in conflicting aesthetic interests, you explore the interconnectedness of both with care and unconditional positive regard
In social life Relational Empathy involves tuning in to your inner self and your relationships with others. It also involves and responding to the needs of those involved in a situation, including the interrelational dynamics of group collectives that may contradict your personal needs, points of view, or moral standards
You learn to
process what provokes unease or appears divergent
tune into and connect with different bodily feelings and energy states that may feel conflicting
shift your perspective on parts and the whole
generate felt meaning in art life and in social life
strengthen your sense of collaboration and coexistance
You develop a wider range of social empathy by implicitly training interactive skills through art-making from Felt Sense
By coming in touch with the your Felt Sense—a kinaesthetic sense of inner truth emerging from the body's inner wisdom—you will find new ways of being in the world that make you feel more at home with where life is placing you
The benefits of operating from body sense are accessible by following the CCP Directives
The art directives you are introduced to come from different traditions: Receptive Art Therapy (Museum Art-based Therapy), Guided Drawing® (Sensorimotor Art Therapy®), Dynamic Shape Drawing (Anthroposophic Art Therapy) and Focusing Oriented Expressive Arts FOAT® (integration of Focusing Oriented Therapy and Expressive Arts)
You will be guided by art directives for warming up, art directives for stepping into the process and art directives for developing your process further
Your Creative Compassion Practice will be supported artistically by artwork of an early pioneer of Modern Arts, the German artist Adolf Hölzel. The artwork coming from his art school (The Hölzel Circle) had been banned during the 1930s and 1940s by Nazi seize of power
Hölzels simple pastel drawings serve as reference pictures for a user-friendly receptive-active arts engagement induced by the CCP Directives (low-skill-high-sensitivity approach)
Transfer from artistic to social Relational Empathy needs some kind of facilitation. A Creative Compassion guide (a Focusing practitioner/professional or FOAT practitioner) can help you find action steps for integrating CCP into your daily life
Start with self-paced Creative Compassion Practice
The user-friendly art exercises you will be introduced to are designed for those with little or no experience. You don't need any previous knowledge or art skills
They have been developed from Museum based Self Art Therapy and therapeutic art practices for people with no prior experience of art.
The exercises on this website focus on the body as experienced from the inside
You can access your inner bodily feelings through mindful breathing, which is integrated into the creative process
To learn how to sense your body from within, please visit one of the free Creative Compassion Practice introductory sessions or arrange a 1:1 session with your Creative Compassion guide
If you have health problems and require additional self-care, please contact us
The art supplies you need for CCP exercises are simple and inexpensive. You will need oil pastels (colored pencils or markers will work as well), paper, and tape
The Creative Compassion Practice directives are free
Group events, such as webinars, workshops, classes and supervision, have an early bird option. They are announced in the Creative Compassion Letters
Group events offer a waiting list for which you can register