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The following essay is from the first issue
of the Newsletter of the International Expressive
Arts Therapy Association (IEATA), No. 1, Winter
1995. IEATA had only recently been founded,
and the first, inaugural conference in San Francisco
was imminent. The founding executive
co-chairs of IEATA (Steve Levine, Philip Speiser,
Anin Utigaard, and Jack S. Weller) each wrote
an article for the first newsletter. Following
is the essay by Jack.
Welcome to the international expressive
arts community! This is a momentous time
for all of us; I am feeling fresh creative winds
blowing over the whole global community of expressive
arts practitioners. In coming together in
this association we have a golden new opportunity,
not just for ourselves as a professional organization,
but for the greater whole. Our world, our
planet, needs a rediscovery and flowering
of the expressive arts.
In writing this I want to share with you, in
a first summary form, my thoughts about who we
are as an expressive arts family. In the
future, with your help, I hope to flesh out this
description. I believe that it is crucial
that we carefully consider these issues of self
definition and identity as we mark this important
time of the beginning of our professional membership
organization.
Over the past 25 years I have been working as
an administrator and teacher in the broad area
of the the expressive arts. In describing
this field, and the graduate programs we have
been developing to prospective students, faculty,
colleagues and friends, I have been using the
image of the expressive arts as a large healthy
tree with a vast visible root system. The
roots go deep into our past, our primal nature,
as well as our more recent past... (For
now I leave it to you to elaborate on the nature
of this root system!) The strong trunk of
the tree embodies the basics of the expressive
arts: doing arts processes in all media;
arts for healing, health and wholeness; our universal
claim to the "artist" in us all; the power of
creative processes; the power of creative expression;
the power of an inclusive multimodal approach....
But then (say five feet up from the ground) the
trunk begins to split, and there become two trunks,
each growing strongly with many branches, leaves,
flowers and fruits. Standing back looking
at the whole tree we see that the branches and
leaves of the two trunks touch and overlap.
One trunk we call Expressive Arts Therapy, the
other trunk we call Expressive Arts Consulting
and Education. The expressive arts
therapy trunk combines the expressive arts
with psychotherapy, counseling and clinical practice.
The expressive arts consulting and education
trunk combines the expressive arts with education
at all levels and in all contexts, growth work,
organizational consulting, health education, community
arts... Both sides of the tree are nourished
by the same roots and common trunk at the base,
and... somehow...each trunk is supported, balanced
and encouraged by the other. The whole tree
is stronger and healthier because it has two trunks.
To go a little further in defining the
nature of the expressive arts tree, it is helpful
to shift metaphors and see it as a family, and
families have "family resemblances" (Wittgenstein),
rather than a single "essence." What are
the characteristics of the expressive arts family?
For now I would like to draw our attention to
seven family resemblances:
I. Expressive arts practitioners tend
to be multi-modal or multi-disciplinary, and believe
in the particular power of this approach.
In working with clients or students they introduce
more than one art modality, perhaps moving from
drawing to movement, to music and rhythm, to drama
or sandplay, and then to journal writing or poetry.
II. Expressive arts practitioners
are strongly connected to the arts and artistic
processes, but not necessarily with what we call
"fine arts." They remind us that somewhere
deep within there is an artist in us all,
and this artist can express itself in a very wide
range of activities. In order to be truly
whole and healthy we need to be in touch with
that artistic spirit, no matter what medium or
form the expression takes. And getting in
touch with the artist within may be a matter of
life or death.
III. A closely related family characteristic
is a strong valuing of creativity, a belief that
underlying all forms of the expressive arts is
an understanding and honoring of creative processes.
Many believe that the courage to create is the
basis for the courage to live an authentic, fully
actualized life. And what better facilitators
of this process than the expressive, creative
arts themselves.
IV. Expressive arts practitioners
tend to stress the therapeutic value and dynamics
of the process of art-making.
They are less interested in interpretations of
the art product and more interested in the
healing aspects of the artistic process.
Following from this, and distinguishing themselves
from some of the related family of creative arts
therapists, expressive arts practitioners tend
to avoid using art to assess or diagnose.
V. A related resemblance found among
the expressive arts family is a strong belief,
trust and respect for the innate healing and whole
making power of each individual. Many expressive
arts practitioners stress that they are facilitating
the client or student in their own process of
deep understanding, healing and growth.
VI. A characteristic that is important
to me is that many members of the expressive arts
family are open to exploring what may be called
spiritual dimensions of life. Many see the interconnections
between artistic and spiritual practices and processes.
The vibrant life of the arts in spiritual and
religious practices throughout the ages is reflected
in contemporary interests in Shamanism, meditation
and transpersonal approaches to therapy and education.
VII. A final characteristic of the
the expressive arts family is that members tend
to be inclusive rather than exclusive.
Some family members are very emphatic in their
not having one of the characteristics above,
but this does not exclude them from the family
(as happens in real families' acceptance of unusual
members). For example some expressive arts
therapists emphasize only one creative arts modality
(as dance, visual arts or drama) and are not at
all drawn to a transpersonal theory or values,
yet they so strongly believe in the other characteristics
that they are drawn to join and participate in
the expressive arts community.
There are further, more specific family characteristics
on each side of the tree, the therapy side
and the consulting and education side, but
I believe we have enough here to begin a larger
dialogue on this subject. Perhaps it does
need to be said that the whole tree is rapidly
growing, forming and finding itself. The
expressive arts therapy side of the tree is more
known as a separate field of endeavor, but there
are still a wide range of practitioners.
As the laws (or lack of laws) for psychotherapists
and counselors vary widely in different states
of the U.S., and even more widely in different
countries, there are different expressive arts
therapists who are clinical psychologists, psychiatrists,
social workers, mental health counselors, marriage
family and child counselors, pastoral counselors,
school counselors, adjunctive therapists, etc.,
etc. The field of expressive arts consulting
and education is even broader and less defined.
It includes the incorporation of the expressive
arts into: organizational consulting, health education
and hospital care, public health administration,
human resource management, arts education, creativity
development, education in the areas of personal
growth and human potential, community arts projects,
elementary, secondary, undergraduate and graduate
education, and in many other areas of human need.
This field is even less articulated and defined
than the therapy side, it is only now coming together
and forming its identity.
I shall conclude with three questions:
(1) What is the relevance of this discussion
of our identity for training programs? (2)
What is the relevance of this for credentialing
(registration or certification)? Should
we have two types of credentialing, one for each
side of the tree? (3) After writing
all of the above, I am beginning to question the
name of our association. I believe a more
accurate name is International Expressive Arts
Association; then there would be two divisions,
one for therapy and one for consulting and education.
I very much look forward to meeting, discussing
and working with you, at the inaugural convention
and in future years.
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