what is intuitive art therapy?
Intuitive Art Therapy enables us to experience different perspectives and empower ourselves to tell new stories.
How is art used in therapy?
Art in therapy is the application of non-verbal forms of expression within the psychotherapeutic/healing journey. This includes the integration of anything from drawing to sculpting, breathwork to mediation, or even dance and yoga. These intuitive tools allow us to get deeper into our (un)conscious inner spaces. Which gets us to those insights that our egos, traumas, or words have invested years into defending, guarding, hiding, or blocking from ourselves, our loved ones, and others.
When applied in therapy, art can be that bridge, a planted seed, a farewell, or a lasting reminder of an experience or relationship we needed/wanted to honor or transform.
this process is for everyone…
It’s true that some of us feel more comfortable, or have had more practice, than others in the act of creating art. Some of us were fortunate enough as little kids not to have someone tell us that just because we don’t have something hanging in a gallery, we’re not an “artist”.
Well fun fact, you’re an artist even if you can’t draw.
Art is simply just an expression that originated from inside of us that is now external of us. It invites in both intimacy and distance from whatever it is expressing. Inviting yourself and others, to bare witness and connect multidimensionally, to a feeling or an experience that was previously indescribable with just words.
Don’t worry, not every session involves art-making.
In fact there are many sessions in which only words are used and art, movement, breathwork, etc., is only integrated when it is intuitively called for in session.
What’s the importance of an intuitive Process?
Intuitive thinking has contrasting qualities: it is unfocused, nonlinear, contains “no time”, sees many things at once, views the big picture, but also it contains perspective, is heart centered, oriented in space and time, and tends to the real or concrete.
This is a personal process of unfolding and expansion.
Following an intuitive path we learn more about ourselves, and how we work. This teaches us how to understand and directly approach our own “illnesses” rather than just treating the “symptoms” we’re often hyper-focused on, or suffering in pain from.
Traditional shamanism is based upon this approach.
While there will be no plants or medicines involved in session, there is an emphasis on creating new rituals/ceremonies and freeing ourselves from the stories/narratives/perspectives that cause us to suffer. During this journey, art-making and other experiential activities. serve us as guides through our process. They open up new doors of perception, and invite other perspectives for us to explore together.
what it looks like in practice…
Sessions are provided virtual first with an in-person 90-min workshop scheduled within the first 90 days of service. I offer services in this way because I believe in a hybrid model of therapy. A model that focuses on reducing the anxiety of traveling to an office in midtown Manhattan during rush-hour, and allows for the flexibility and ease of access through your own devices. The in-person workshop is there to build a richer connection, that digital alone can’t provide.
If you’re looking for something completely integrated and tailored to your specific needs, such as bi-weekly sessions, let us discuss your needs and see how we can best meet them together.