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Expressive Arts for Healing
Embody Create Heal offers therapeutic art workshops that provide trauma-informed and supportive guidance to participants through a creative experience. We aim to create opportunities for participants to connect with their own creative rhythms at their own pace. The workshops are structured to provide participants with different options to explore thoughts, feelings and ideas. We explore our creative voice through movement, artistic expression and reflection.
Creative Expression through color, texture, shape and abstraction is a universal language that is available to all. There are many ways to explore your creativity and visual arts is one of them. Artistic expression is not reserved for those with special talents or abilities. Using creativity as a tool to communicate and tell a story can be a powerful and healing experience. In our workshops participants are encouraged to follow along at their own pace and in their own way. Key elements included in our teaching modality include choice, empowerment, self-compassion, awareness and a deep regard for each person's lived experience and how that impacts their process..
Some benefits of conscious creativity include helping to identifying and label feelings, increased relaxation and stress relief, and opportunities for problem solving and innovative thinking. For many participants, the creative process allows them to practice letting go of the need to be perfect and creates an opportunity to access subconscious thoughts and ideas. It can be a meditative process and the tactile nature of the practice encourages awareness of the body and sensations. Coupled with movement, creative expression can allow for a release of stuck energy and assist with gently pushing through barriers in different layers of the self.
By reframing the art-making process and learning through a compassionate lens we can explore expressing ourselves in a non-threatening way. The emphasis is placed on the process of creating rather than the end result of a piece. With guidance you can access a “flow” zone in which you move with your body’s natural rhythms. The creative process can create opportunities to trust our choices and our intuition.
There are many tools for creative expression; visual arts are just one category. In our workshops we aim to incorporate at least a few of the following modalities to create a well-rounded experience: music, crafting, poetry, visual arts, movement, yoga
Creativity is an important tool we can all use to develop and strengthen the social-emotional skills we need to move through life. Movement, Visual Arts, Poetry, and Music are just some of the ways that we can express our unique voice. In our sessions participants will be gently guided to become aware of what they need at the moment. Participants are reminded that there is no right or wrong way to be creative.
Social Emotional Arts are beneficial for those that are interested in exploring a variety of art mediums and techniques. Sessions give room for experimentation and creative freedom. The outcome of the project is often unpredictable and unfolds as the artist creates. There's no need to follow specific guidelines or make each project perfect. A safe space to create without being judged or graded is so important for an artist to express his/her individuality. The most important aspect of being in an open art session is the freedom you'll experience as a creative being. Every human being has a unique artistic voice and it blossoms every time you let it.
