EXPRESSIVE ARTS FOCUSING

EXAF: A Multiplicity of Therapeutic Understandings for Best Practice

The Expressive Arts Focusing (EXAF) approach uses various therapeutic understandings to help individuals and groups get the most out of their engagement with Felt Sense-based arts

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Expressive Arts Focusing (EXAF) is an approach within the FOCUSZART framework of Arts in Focusing. Expressive Arts Focusing is engaging in Felt Sense-based studio art for positive growth and healing. This implies using slow art in the studio to process the Felt Sense through various therapeutic, art-based methods and approaches

When using approaches of various therapeutic understandings, we work in an integrative manner. Our understanding of 'integrative' is defined by crossing, a concept introduced by Eugene Gendlin. We cross different therapeutic understandings in ways that keep Felt Sense studio art at the center

For more information, check out the INFOBOX Crossing 

EXAF Principles

Expressive Arts Focusing EXAF follows the ethics of the person-centered and experiential approach

Foundational Focusing and FOAT® principles (Eugene Gendlin, Laury Rappaport) are the main principles, along with Empathic Curiosity for Differences (Christiane Geiser) and Aesthetic Empathy (Friedl Dicker-Brandeis)

We also draw from principles of the Expressive Arts Therapies as defined by Paolo Knill, Stephen K. Levine, Shaun McNiff and Cathy Malchiodi

Relating in EXAF Settings

EXAF settings are based on the Felt Sense of the client or group participant

Allowing Felt Sense wisdom to flourish is essential for establishing a trusting professional relationship that fosters artistic and personal growth for both the client and group participant

Clients and group participants are experts in their own processing and direction of development. They are co-creative partners in discovering how EXAF practices are most conductive to their moving forward 

This working model is highly experiential and person-centered, and works best when the therapist offers a wide range of methods to meet individual needs

We combine the various therapeutic understandings by crossing

INFOBOX Crossing

The following information is intended for professionals and interested practitioners

Please CONTACT US for questions and comments. Thank you!

Crossing is a concept introduced by Eugene Gendlin. Crossing brings out the way in which all the therapeutic methods involved can elevate the session, making it feel fresh

The moment of crossing cannot be willfully induced by the therapist. According to Gendlin (with explanations in brackets by Akira Ikemi), crossing happens through 'interaffecting,' which is the intersubjective reality stemming from the shared presence of the client and therapist (the first level of crossing). Using interaffecting for therapeutic purposes means that the therapist must be able to viscerally co-experience what the client is experiencing and expressing from felt knowing (a term coined by Dr Rappaport)

Felt knowing is what the body 'knows' about its living moment-to-moment. Its a knowing that is generating from introceptive and visceral levels. This kind of knowing is the touchstone that helps the client determine whether to stay with what is or try approaching something new, such as shifting to a different artistic medium or engaging in another form of artistic expression

It is only in retrospect that the client can see how trying something new has carried their situation forward as a whole (the second level of crossing). They know whether a kind of second-level crossing was successful by paying attention to a Felt Shift occurring. A Felt Shift is a spontaneous breath release of the body. This release indicates that the client's body no longer has to carry their past situation. Something new has opened up in the client's inner landscape that did not exist before, and it feels fresh in both the body and artistic expression. The client will notice that their artistic expression and its symbolization have matched, as has their insight (the bodily felt meaning that has occured) 

In artistic terms, crossing is like mixing colors. A new hue is created. It did not exist before. It contains a More of all the colors that have been mixed in

The body sense provides information about what is needed in the given situation. In the therapeutic setting, it indicates how the client's experiencing can take a next move forward. The client's Felt Sense serves as a guideline for both the client and the therapist. By attuning to the client's Felt Sense, the therapist gains a bodily understanding of how the next second-level crossing might occur, despite lacking cognitive information from the client. Ideally, this attunement occurs before the therapist suggests anything, such as introducing a new, hands-on method or introducing artistic prompts. As art-based expression works with multiple forms of symbolization, the second-level crossing is likely to succeed when the symbolization meets the client's actualizing channel of sensory expression

Ultimately, it is up to the client to consult their Felt Sense and either engage in new artistic activities or reject the therapist's suggestion. Whether the client's Felt Sense can unfold as a laboratory of truth that propels the therapeutic situation forward depends on the quality of the co-creative interaction between the therapist and the client. This kind of interaction is more like a Felt Sense-based zigzag processing between client and therapist than a mere conversation

The Felt Sense is a work of art in the making. It shows its beauty through image, word, phrase, gesture, movement or sound

Experiential Understandings: Focusing

Focusing is a body-mind practice and a method of the person-centered and experiential approach developed by Prof. Eugene Gendlin

Focusing explores personal issues, relationships and situations from felt experiencing. Focusing works with body awareness from within, initiating organismic micro-changes, body shifts and new steps towards life solutions

We learned from international renowned Focusing pioneers and teachers who developed a wide range of Focusing approaches:

Focusing Gendlin

Inner Relationship Focusing Ann Weiser Cornell

Intermodal Focusing Plus Focusing Network FN

Existential Well-Being Counseling Mia Leijssen

Wholebody Heartfelt Conversation Kevin McEvenue

Focusing with the Whole Body Astrid Schillings

Integrative Focusing René Maas

Dynamic Expressive Focusing René Veugelers

Focusing oriented Expressive Arts FOAT® Laury Rappaport

Focusing-Oriented Relational Psychotherapy Lynn Preston

 

We teach these methods

Experiential Understandings: Focusing with the Arts

Focusing Oriented Expressive Arts FOAT®

by Laury Rappaport, PHD, MFT, REAT, ART-BC

FOAT® is a mindfulness based approach for positive growth and change integrating Focusing and the Expressive Arts. FOAT® applications are supported by publications and research

We teach this method

 

Experiential Collaging

by Prof. Dr. Akira Ikemi

We teach this method

Person-centered Understandings

Person-Centered Psychotherapy and Counseling 

with understandings of existential, depth-oriented, behavioral and critical-marxist concepts to enhance the person-centered concept within a collaborative therapeutic relationship, and adapt to the client's individual needs

We use this method

Person-centered Unterstandings with the Arts

Person-Centered Expressive Arts Therapy PCEAT

by Nathalie Rogers, PhD, REAT

We refer to the understanding of the multi-modal process named The Creative Connection

 

Person-centred Art Therapy PCAT

Pioneered by Liesl Silverstone - video and forwarded by Ani de la Prida, BA, MA, Adv.Dip. to Person-centred Creative Arts

We use this method

 

Client-centered Art Therapy

by Dr. Norbert Groddeck

We refer to the theory and applications

Understandings of the Expressive Arts Therapies

Sensorimotor Expressive Arts Therapy | Guided Drawing®

by Cornelia Elbrecht, BA, MA (ART Ed), AthR, SEP

Guided Drawing® is a sensorimotor and body-focused art therapy for trauma release, using mindfulness, sensory awareness and trust in the guidance from within

We use this method

 

Trauma-informed Expressive Arts Therapy

by Cathy Malchiodi, PhD, LPCC, LPAT, ATR-BC, REAT

We refer to the understanding of EXA traumatology

 

Intermodal Expressive Arts Therapy

by Prof. Dr. Dr. Paolo Knill and Prof. em. Stephen K. Levine, Ph.D., D.S.Sc, REAT

We refer to the theory of polyaesthetics and the practice of Intermodal Decentering (IDEC®)

Understandings of Art Therapy

We have been trained in various European Art Therapy approaches with a focus on Receptive Art Therapy and Dynamic Shape Drawing

 

Receptive Art Therapy

Art Therapy (Petzold 1999; Franzen, Menzen 2022) is using receptive-active arts engagement in clinical psychotherapy, counseling and palliative care. Receptive Art Therapy is also refered to as Museum-art based Therapy

We use this method

 

Dynamic Shape Drawing

Dynamic Shape Drawing is a practice of anthroposophic art therapy, developed by artist and special education teacher Hermann Kirchner (GER) and Waldorf school pioneer Rudolf Kutzli (CH). In Dynamic Shape Drawing, basic forms are transformed through rhythmic moving and swinging lines following breathing 

We use this method

Understandings of Art Education

Coming from a study of Design Techniques for vocational teachers, we use various understandings of art education

Bauhaus Art Pedagogy

We refer to didactics of the Bauhaus Founders

 

Museum-art Pedagogy

We refer to the interdisciplinary didactics of MoMA

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