Expressive Arts Therapy: “Cosmos Dancing”

(…continued from My Introduction to Expressive Arts Therapy).

Cosmos Dancing within my Soul –  a collaborative expressive arts therapy project

For a couple of weeks toward the end of our two semesters of art therapy, only “Mary” and I were able to attend regularly, along with Kimberley, our program facilitator. For us, she cooked up something new, alright!

Expressive Arts Therapy: “Body Project”

(…continued from My Introduction to Expressive Arts Therapy).

There we were, six of us chemo-balded ladies, hung all in a row, faceless and pale, with our backs flat against the wall, waiting for colour. How had it ever come to this?

My Introduction to “Expressive Arts Therapy”

This post has been simmering for a long time… Heartfelt thanks to blogger Maria Holm of Health from One Heart to Another for encouraging me to write a post about my experience with this therapy, as a patient, and for her patience in finally getting this response. Maria was a public health care practitioner; she has a big heart for people, loves the arts, travel, and has many other interests too, as you’ll see from her blog.

I hope this post will encourage you to embrace creative activities as natural and essential to your daily life!

What is “Expressive Arts Therapy” anyway? By definition, all the arts are expressive, but what makes them “therapy”?

Why Try to Describe Nature?

I love walking around in nature– out in the open or in gardens– breathing fresh air. Well, I mean I love it when there are no mosquitoes, and when it’s not too hot, too humid, or too cold! Under those circumstances, I still love viewing beautiful scenery through a window or from behind a mosquito screen, or barring that, vicariously through poetry, prose, photography, or art.

The Solitary Tree. “Caspar David Friedrich – Der einsame Baum – Google Art Project” by Caspar David Friedrich – VgEo9JDzFjfGGg at Google Cultural Institute. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons –

It would be easy to leave it at that, but then

Writing Colour on a Yellow Day

Deep in Thought about Yellow

A beautiful day in May! We’re at our local airport, and Werner is doing the walkabout check of his airplane for another flight to Tillsonburg. (See previous post, Que Sera). Meanwhile, I’m soaking up some spring warmth on the grass alongside the hangar, where bits of sunshine are caught among the grass blades, and darker green shadows slither in between as wispy clouds slide past.

The airplane lifts off, and the verdant meadow beyond the runway sinks below us. Thousands of drops of sunlight are spattered, dandelion-yellow, across the lush green grass.

My mind starts humming along with the motor. How would you accurately describe the colour of dandelions to someone who might never have seen one before?

Is it Still Summer?

A little watercolour sketch of my irises back in June

What a summer! While some Ontarians (those deprived of perfect holiday weather) were complaining about how “not summery” it felt this year– so much rain, our lakes too cold for swimming, etc.– of course I listened sympathetically!

But then a few gardening friends and I gloated privately to one another

Making Faces

Arrrgh! Seven young women are frustrating me! Late teenage, they’re uncannily similar to one another (mischievously clever, pretty, perky, and confident), yet insisting on exuding very distinct personalities.

“What’s wrong with these girls?” I ask myself, as seven different smiles mock me from my page of sketching attempts.

You’ve guessed it – it’s supposed to be only one girl. She’s the heroine of a folk tale that I’m reworking as a children’s storybook. But my one girl has seven distinct personalities, and threatens to reveal even more schizophrenia as my sketching attempts continue. Obviously a case requiring professional help!

Let me backtrack a moment.