Can an Expressive Arts Therapist Be Trained in Emdr
Art of Counseling has therapists trained in both fine art therapy and EMDR, that work with trauma and emotional regulation. Blending fine art therapy and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) techniques has been reported to exist a rich and healing feel for all ages. Below you will observe a great article on this field of study by Cathy Malchiodi originally posted on Psychology Today .
Image: Visual Journal Entry Past Heather Matson 2014
Bilateral Drawing: Self-Regulation for Trauma Reparation
Past Cathy Malchiodi
Permit'south draw on the power of both hands to modulate stress.
In working with survivors of acute and repeated traumatic events over the last several decades, I am ever specially witting of individuals' self-regulating capacities initially and throughout our work together. Self-regulation is currently a ubiquitous term used to describe not only the chapters to control one'southward impulses, but likewise to exist able to soothe and calm the trunk'southward reactions to stress. It is the ability to modulate affective, sensory and somatic responses that impact all functioning including emotions and cognition. It also refers to the brain's executive part to control impulses, delay actions if necessary and initiate them if necessary, even if one does not desire to.
Past the simplest definition, bilateral simply ways "involving two sides." Sensory integration is often associated with bilateral techniques that assist individuals in organizing specific sensations via methods constitute in occupational therapy. In the process of reparation from psychological trauma, various forms of bilateral stimulation or movement seem to be effective in engaging cantankerous-hemisphere activity in the brain (Shapiro, 2001) and in art therapy possibly because information technology reconnects "thinking" and "feeling" (Malchiodi, 2003/2011) via the sensory-based processes involved in fine art making. These applications seem to have an touch on on recovery from traumatic events because for many individuals, the limbic system and right hemisphere of the brain are hyperactivated by actual experiences or memories of trauma. In brief, specific processes found in bilateral stimulation may help regulate body and mind thus assuasive explicit memory to be reconnected with implicit retentivity.
Bilateral drawing is a deceptively uncomplicated art-based activity that has been effectually since at least the 1950s that capitalizes on self-regulating properties similar to rocking, walking, cycling or drumming. Some art therapy practitioners refer to bilateral drawing as "scribbling with both easily" considering the intent is not necessarily to make a specific image, but to instead just engage both hands in spontaneous drawing with chalks, pastels or other easily manipulated art materials. Like many art and expressive arts therapists, I take used this action for several decades and actually learned it during higher art courses as a style of "loosening up" before starting time to draw or paint. Florence Pikestaff (1951) is one of many early fine art therapy practitioners who observed a connection between free-class gestural drawing on newspaper, the kinesthetic sense involved in movement, and the embodied qualities of the experience. In her work with children and adults in the mid-20th century, Pikestaff hypothesized that it is important to engage individuals through movements that get beyond the use of the hands to engage the whole body in natural rhythms. In item, she refers to large swinging gestures that come from the shoulder, elbow or wrist to non just liberate creative expression, but also human activity in a restorative capacity to back up healthy rhythms in the body and listen. In other words, these rhythmic movements tin can be skillful in the air and so later transferring them to paper with drawing materials.
Therapists echo Cane'south observations in clinical applications of expressive fine art with individuals, using several variations of the simple scribble in cases of trauma and bilateral drawing methods (McNamee, 2003) for not merely self-regulation, merely also in trauma processing (Malchiodi, in press; Urhausen, 2015). In the example of bilateral drawing, in that location is an assumption that because both hands are engaged that both hemispheres of the brain are stimulated. This concept reflects Shapiro's model of Middle Move Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) (2001) treatment that involves dual attending stimulation and consists of a practitioner facilitating bilateral eye movements, taps and sounds as sensory cues with an individual. When combined with trauma narratives, it is believed that visual, auditory or tactile cues help the individual by directing focus on the present rather than what has happened in the past. While applications of bilateral drawing methods and the integration of art expression inside the practice of EMDR seem to exist constructive, virtually of these art-based applications accept not been thoroughly explained through evidence-based enquiry and only demonstrate preliminary effectiveness through small scale observational studies and case examples.
I believe bilateral drawing, guided by a helping professional, is helpful simply as a method of self-regulation. In particular, information technology tin be introduced equally a grounding technique because it is a novel, non-threatening yet embodied experience for almost individuals. Equally an expressive arts intervention, bilateral work can also be an embodied procedure especially if the private creates using assuming gestures and large muscle groups; music can also enhance and shift the dynamics of the feel through diverse rhythms that stimulate and appoint the person on a kinesthetic level.
In piece of work with trauma reactions, I find that bilateral expressive work is useful with both individuals who are hands hyperactivated (fight or flying) or are susceptible to reacting to distress with a freeze response; these individuals often need experiences that involve movement in order to reduce their sensations of feeling trapped, withdrawn or dissociated. Making marks or gestures on newspaper with both hands simultaneously also creates an attending shift away from the lamentable sensations in the body to a different, action-oriented and self-empowered focus. It capitalizes on the embodied, cocky-soothing experiences originally observed past Cane almost vii decades ago and takes advantage of the power of "drawing on both sides" to alter ane's own internal rhythms for self-regulation and well-being.
Be well and draw on both sides of your brain,
Cathy Malchiodi, PhD
© 2015 Cathy Malchiodi
www.cathymalchiodi.com (link is external)
References
Cane, F. (1951). The artist in each of us. London: Thames and Hudson.
Malchiodi, C. (in press). Trauma-informed expressive arts therapy. New York: Guilford.
Malchiodi, C. (2003/2011). Art therapy and the brain. In C. Malchiodi (Ed.), Handbook of Fine art Therapy (pp. 17-26). New York: Guilford.
McNamee, C. 2003 Bilateral art: Facilitating systemic integration and balance. The Arts in Psychotherapy, thirty(five): 283-292. DOI: 10.1016/j.aip.2003.08.005
Shapiro, F. (2001). Eye motion desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). New York: Guilford.
Urhausen, Grand. T. (2015). Heart movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and fine art therapy with traumatized children. In C. Malchiodi (Ed.), Creative Interventions with Traumatized Children (pp. 45-74). New York: Guilford.
This mail is an extract from the forthcoming Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy, C. Malchiodi, Guilford Printing © 2016 and part of the Creative Arts and Play Therapy Serial (link is external) at www.guilford.com (link is external) .
Source: https://artofcounselingstpaul.com/2015/10/01/art-therapy-and-emdr-meet-bilateral-drawing-self-regulation-for-trauma-reparation/
0 Response to "Can an Expressive Arts Therapist Be Trained in Emdr"
Post a Comment