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

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