EXPRESSIVE ARTS FOCUSING

Expressive Arts Focusing creates space for Felt Sense-based studio art

Felt Sense-based studio art, the art-making from the Felt Sense, is a creative, body-focused meaning-making process. It is both therapeutic and an art form in its own right. All forms of Felt Sense-based arts, also known as 'Felt Sense Arts', come from the living body and from the body's forwarding of the creative life force

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Art-making itself is a carrying forward: 'Any action or interaction is a carrying forward of the body' (Eugene Gendlin, The Process Model)

The body's forwarding is a fundamental force of nature, as is creative expression. Any art activity, whether receptive or active engagement with the arts, induces a More of something that generates new life

This is especially true when art is formed from the 'Felt Sense' or body sense. Eugene Gendlin created the term 'Felt Sense" to describe an inner kinesthetic sensation or bodily feeling of vague quality. It's speaks through intermodal expression, occuring in visual, verbal, auditory or kinesthetic ways

According to Gendlin, the Felt Sense is a felt direction toward, a living and a pointing to something where a more of creative life is generating. Felt Sense-based art activties are part of this

The Language of Felt Sense Arts

Art speaks for itself. As Eugene Gendlin would say, art has a language that cannot be looked up in a dictionary

The language of Felt Sense Arts transcends psychological, philosophical, and artistic concepts. Its vocabulary is thicker than aesthetic descriptions or analytical observations can reveal

All types of artistic engagement can be Felt Sense Arts. This occurs when the body takes the lead in artistic expression, processing and meaning-making

No matter how small or unskilled, artistic efforts manifest artistic language and authorship. The artistic language that stems from the Felt Sense can lead to a new and groundbreaking understanding of the individual's authorship, regardless of the quality of their artistic product

How The Founder of Focusing Prof. Eugene Gendlin Would Have Said It

Words are social forms. Arts are social forms. Arts themselves are not moving forward alike words are not moving forward when you use words or arts only. So taking arts only is not moving forward and interpretating arts only is not moving forward unless you approach arts experiential

This means to ask if there is a step coming when you are refering to your art. What I mean here is a step opening up to something. Even when you interprete a piece of art in best ways, the whole stays within a certain social form and social forms do not change. What changes the form and brings a shift, this little step forwarding, is to pause and wait for art to come

Art does not come from talent or skills only. What comes as art comes through the body, and what comes through the body is social or cultural and with a More of that is not part of the social and the cultural. This kind of art has forwarding life energy in it. This kind of art is what experiential art is about

The words Eugene Gendlin would have used come from an inner voice speaking Gendlinish. They are not original words of Eugene Gendlin's. They come from an 'Inner Gene' that crystalized through studying Gendlin's work after meeting him in person

A Gendlin lecture at Humboldt House Achberg GER, venue of Gendlin's European teachings 1992-97. Video presentation of the German-Swiss Focusing Network (2023) at the hall where Gendlin gave this lecture

EXAF: A Multiplicity of Therapeutic Understandings for Best Practice

EXAF, the approach of Expressive Arts Focusing, uses various therapeutic understandings to help individuals and groups get the most out of their engagement with Felt Sense-based studio art

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When using approaches of various therapeutic understandings, we work in an integrative manner while following the ethics of the person-centered and experiential approach

Our understanding of 'integrative' is defined by crossing, a concept introduced by Eugene Gendlin. Crossing brings out the very unique way in which the More of all therapeutic methods can elevate the session. We cross different therapeutic understandings in ways that keep Felt Sense studio art at the center

The moment of crossing cannot be willfully induced by the therapist but comes from the client's living body as it actualizes its felt knowing (a term coined by Dr. Rappaport). This kind of knowing is the touchstone that helps determine which type of crossing might be best

The body sense (very often of both client and therapist) provides information about what is needed next. It tells about the quality of the therapeutic co-creative interaction, and it shows coherent ways for the therapeutic situation to be moved forward as a whole

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

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 the principles of the Intermodal Expressive Arts Therapy (Decentering®/IDEC®)

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/Being Seriously Playful 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® - video 1 | video 2 | video 3 | video 4

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 use 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 - video

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 teach this method

 

Client-centered Art Therapy by Dr. Norbert Groddeck

We refer to theory and application

Understandings of the Expressive Arts Therapies

Sensorimotor Expressive Arts Therapy | Guided Drawing® - video

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 theories of polyaesthetics and IDEC®

 

 

Understandings of Art Therapy

Receptive Art Therapy

Art Therapy (Petzold 1999; Franzen, Menzen 2022) 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 teach this method

Understandings of Art Education

We cross therapeutic understandings with understandings of art education

Bauhaus Art Pedagogy

We refer to didactics of the Bauhaus Founders

 

Museum-art Pedagogy

We refer to didactics of MoMA

 

Make Space For Artlife. Start With Felt Sense Arts!