CREATIVE COMPASSION

We provide self-paced, arts-based practices to cultivate compassion for peacebuilding

Creative Compassion for Peacebuilding (CCP) is a practice that helps you stay in a zone of emotional ambiguity and feel more comfortable with people who are different from you or have different needs

CCP uses the aesthetics to expand your empathic understanding of differences in art and people

CCP is a user-friendly approach that engages you in embodied cultural and creative arts activities

CCP is a Community Wellness Focusing approach to building relational empathy for global peace

CCP connects with the art of persecuted and neglected artists as well as those aligned with their artistic heritage

developed by Freda Blob

Creative Compassion for Peacebuilding enhances self-empathy and empathy for others

The Creative Compassion approach uses fine arts and Focusing to promote an understanding and practice of Relational Empathy

Creative Compassion for Peacebuilding

Creative Compassion for Peacebuilding (CCP) contributes to global peacebuilding efforts

The practice uses the force of Focusing and the Felt Sense arts to build Relational Empathy (Maureen O'Hara) and empower communities

Practitioners learn to bodily respond to fine art materials created by professional artists and to express their feelings through Felt Sense arts activities (embodied cultural and creative arts engagement)

By following the wisdom of the body, practitioners learn to synthesize divergent emotions and feeling states, and develop a sense of the Bigger Us

CCP works with artwork by persecuted artists, or with pieces from the heritage of banned or neglected art

INFO BOX Relational Empathy

Relational empathy involves tuning into the whole rather than just the parts. It promotes both personal and collective growth. It fosters a sociocentric rather than an egocentric worldview

Relational Empathy is a person-centered concept developed by Professor Emeritus Maureen O'Hara, a colleague of Carl Rogers

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

Testimonals

Being taken care of. All universe is taking care

Both parts are coming to same ground. There is one unifying flow. All is part of this flow

Co-creation

In touch with the bigger aspect of life

It becomes musical. It's like a symphony where I can integrate the two

It is a lesson to welcome it all and be with it all

Pleasant surprize how easily two far apart things come together and come into sync like in a dance

So surprizing: things are coming together

There is a blending of the negative with the positive and a new synthes

There is a rhythm of containing, one is containing the other, and it is grounding

There is an energy coming that is vitalizing and holding both together, and they can flow forward, and it becomes an inner ressource

From Art-based to Social Relational Empathy

When you embark on your journey with Creative Compassion for Peacebuilding (CCP), you will expand your empathy beyond personal preferences and limitations to encompass multiple layers of existence

You learn to

cultivate empathy for what that feels familiar and unfamiliar to you aesthetically
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 practice of Creative Compassion for Peacebuilding 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)

Transitioning from art-based to social Relational Empathy requires facilitation. A Creative Compassion Guide, who is a Focusing Professional, Expressive Arts Focusing Practitioner or FOAT® Practitioner, can help you find action steps for integrating CCP into your daily life

©Anna Zakharova /Unsplash

FAQ

I have no art experience. Can I participate?

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.

I don't know how to feel the body. Do you have any advice?

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

What art materials do I need?

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

Are there reduced prizing options?

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

Sign Me Up for Group Event Notifications

Creative Compassion for Peacebuilding is based on the principles and underlying concepts of Felt Sense-based Arts

Take Your Step to Relational Empathy

Start with self-paced Creative Compassion Practice

CCP Guidelines for Practice

CCP Reference Artwork

CCP Reference Artist