Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy offered by professional art-based clinicians. The practice of art therapy is an approach that has emerged and gained traction within the domain of mental health over the past five decades

The primary domain of art therapy is expressing yourself through visual arts, such as painting, collaging, drawing, or working with modeling clay. These creative arts activities teach you to become your own supportive guide

ECAF-Informed art therapy involves paying attention to both your aesthetic expression and your body. Your body sense, also known as Felt Sense, is a natural inner resource. It is your innate guide for self-expression. It communicates through inner bodily sensations, shifts in your breathing, and changes in the visible design of your artwork

Felt Sense-Based studio art is at the heart of the ECAF-informed art therapy we offer. Since the Felt Sense is the doorway to intermodal expression, your artwork may shift from visual art to intermodal art forms, such as creative writing, movement, dance, or  creating sounds. This shift may occur in a single session or over the course of several sessions

You will experience this shift as an intermodal flow of self-expression, which calls for multimodal art practices and tools. This process is named "processing along the Focusing avenues". Please note that the term "creative arts activities" is being replaced by "expressive arts" in this instance

In short, art therapy that incorporates ECAF principles and practices is not limited to visual arts; it allows for a full spectrum of creative expression

The combination of ECAF and art therapy is a trauma-informed approach that provides a safe space in which you can address personal issues beyond words and without telling your story. As you start expressing yourself through ECAF in your art therapy session, you are fully in control how involved you get and how much you reveal

Each session begins differently. You can start with a conversation, a Focusing body scan, or a focus on your breathing. You can also meditate or express yourself spontaneously by exploring materials and experimenting with them

Grounding and drawing exercises, such as Dynamic Shape Drawing and Guided Drawing®, can also help you get started and deepen your experience. They help building confidence and promote your spontaneous creative expression

Focusing is an experiential, evidence-based body-mind practice. It is free of exercise programs. This is what sets it apart from MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction)

During Focusing, you will become aware of multiple layers of experience and aspects of life. This occurs when you focus on the Felt Sense, an inner bodily sensation of vague quality. When you sit with the Felt Sense, new meanings can emerge from the body's felt knowing. This is what distinguishes the Focusing Felt Sense from the felt sense of Somatic Experiencing

Focusing is a practice based on the Philosophy of the Implicit and the Process Model (PM), developed by Eugene Gendlin. It is also a therapeutic method that is part of the person-centered, experiential approach. It is used in experiential-existential therapeutic settings as well

In Focusing Therapy, known as Focusing Oriented Therapy FOT, Focusing is integrated into psychotherapeutic processing. This means that 'the client is invited to notice how their body makes feelings about their life issues, and they are helped to gently access what the body says about what they are experiencing' (from: https://focusing.org/felt-sense/focusing-oriented-psychotherapy)

ECAF in Focusing Oriented Therapy allows you to describe the quality of your Focusing Felt Sense verbally and also express it through painting, writing, gestures, movement, sound, or through other art practices