1:1 Sessions

Expressive Arts Focusing (EXAF) in Clinical Settings

We offer two therapeutic EXAF pathways 

  • EXAF in Art Therapy: Therapeutic art-making from the Felt Sense. Focusing is used to reflect on the artwork
  • EXAF in Focusing Therapy: Focusing Oriented Psychotherapy FOT that includes art-based expression of the Felt Sense

INFOBOX EXAF in Art Therapy

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

EXAF-based 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 art therapy uses visual expression, you are fully in control how involved you get and how much you reveal

 

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

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

 

When you express yourself through visual arts such as painting, collaging, drawing, or creating three-dimensional objects (which are seen as the main domain of art therapy), you learn to become your own supportive guide by paying attention to 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 brathing, and the visible design of your artwork

 

Felt Sense-based studio art it the heart of the EXAF approach (Expressive Arts Focusing). Since the Felt Sense is the doorway to intermodal expression, your artwork may shift from visual art to creative writing, movement, dance, or  creating sounds in a single session or over the course of several sessions

Therefore, art therapy combined with EXAF does not limit you to visual arts, but rather allows for the full spectrum of creative expression

INFOBOX EXAF in Focusing Therapy

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 therapeutic method and part of the person-centered existential approach. It is also a practice based on philosophy and used in experiential-existential therapy 

In Focusing Therapy, or 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)

EXAF (Expressive Arts Focusing) in Focusing Therapy allows you to describe the quality of your Focusing Felt Sense verbally and also express it through painting, writing, gestures, movement or sound

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EXAF in Counseling and Supervision

We offer two formats of non-clinical support

  • EXAF in Positive Art-based Counseling for Existential Health

INFOBOX EXAF in Positive Art-based Counseling for Existential Health

In Positive Art-based counseling, the focus is on positive psychology and the use of receptive arts engagement in counseling settings, such as reflecting and meditating on paintings by professional artists

 

Positive psychology is a branch of psychology that deals with what makes life most worth living. It uses evidence-based insights and tools to help people thrive, not just cope 

 

Works of art can serve as a mirror for personal and existential questions and for depicting challenging life circumstances. They can also serve as signposts for inner transformation and change

 

Through EXAF-based dialogue with professional works of art and their impact, your aesthetic sense and your sense of existential well-being are gently activated and placed in a broader context of meaning

As you gain an understanding of what a meaningful life can look like, your ability to approach existential life issues in a positive and self-affirming manner is strengthened. This does not mean that e.g. a chronic disease is cured, but rather, you are given access to hope, joy, and fulfillment despite the circumstances life places you in

 

We refer to Prof. Max Liljefors approach to existential health in the field of arts and aestetics, and to Prof. em. Mia Leijssen's approach of Existential Well-being Counseling. Both approaches emphasize positive psychology 

  • EXAF in supervision for professionals in the helping fields

This includes

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Discover Your True Self. Connect With the Arts!