Starting Friday: September 2nd-30th, 3:30 pm – 5 pm.

Posted Sep 29, 2015 by Cathy Malchiodi PhD, LPCC, LPAT, ATR-BC, REAT
In working with survivors of acute and repeated traumatic events over the last several decades, I am always particularly conscious of individuals’ self-regulating capacities initially and throughout our work together. Self-regulation is currently a ubiquitous term used to describe not only the capacity to control one’s impulses, but also to be able to soothe and calm the body’s 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 function to control impulses, delay actions if necessary and initiate them if necessary, even if one does not want to.
By the simplest definition, bilateral simply means “involving two sides.” Sensory integration is often associated with bilateral techniques that assist individuals in organizing specific sensations via methods found in occupational therapy. In the process of reparation from psychological trauma, various forms of bilateral stimulation or movement seem to be effective in engaging cross-hemisphere activity in the brain (Shapiro, 2001) and in art therapy possibly because it reconnects “thinking” and “feeling” (Malchiodi, 2003/2011) via the sensory-based processes involved in art making. These applications seem to have an impact 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 allowing explicit memory to be reconnected with implicit memory.
Bilateral drawing is a deceptively simple art-based activity that has been around 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 hands” because 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 have used this activity for several decades and actually learned it during college art courses as a way of “loosening up” before beginning to draw or paint. Florence Cane (1951) is one of many early art therapy practitioners who observed a connection between free-form gestural drawing on paper, 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, Cane hypothesized that it is important to engage individuals through movements that go beyond the use of the hands to engage the whole body in natural rhythms. In particular, she refers to large swinging gestures that come from the shoulder, elbow or wrist to not only liberate creative expression, but also act in a restorative capacity to support healthy rhythms in the body and mind. In other words, these rhythmic movements can be practiced in the air and then later transferring them to paper with drawing materials.
Image: “Mindscape” Kristin Kane, MA, LMFT, ATR from Visual Art Journal 2016
AATA
October 6, 2016
The American Art Therapy Association and our friends at Americans for the Arts are celebrating October as National Arts and Humanities Month! President Obama has already kicked things off by issuing an official White House Proclamation that articulates the importance of the arts and culture in our history and in our future. He states, “In many ways, the arts and humanities reflect our national soul. They are central to who we are as Americans—as dreamers and storytellers, creators and visionaries. By investing in the arts, we can chart a course for the future in which the threads of our common humanity are bound together with creative empathy and openness.”
Get Involved
Art therapists are uniquely positioned to speak on the role of the creative arts in mental health, a topic of great importance for individuals, communities, organizations, and legislation. Join us in promoting National Arts and Humanities month and raising awareness for the importance of the arts!
In honor of Creative Art Therapies Week, March 13-19, 2016, I would like to spotlight Art of Counseling, pllc, whose mission is to create a unique specialty using Creative Art Therapies to foster emotional healing, encourage internal resiliency, enhance personal relationships and give a unique perspective to human storytelling and expression. Art of Counseling is a psychotherapy group practice located in Saint Paul, Minnesota that provides mental health services to clients in the metro area. We have clinicians that are Registered Art Therapists (ATR & ATR-BC); trained in movement, play and poetry therapies; licensed or on track for Marriage and Family Therapy (LMFT) or Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC); trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and intertwines a trauma-informed therapy model in our clinicians’ individual theoretic model of therapy.
Clients that have been attracted to our unique approach have been those who struggle with feeling stuck, depressed mood, anxious, nightmares and sleep issues, trauma, dissociation, self-harm and risk taking, shame and guilt, childhood issues, anger, addictive behavior, eating and body image issues, sex and sexuality, cultural exploration, blended family situations, couples and marriage counseling, abandonment, grief and loss, etc. Even though we in-network for some insurances, Art of Counseling is proud to say that our clinicians’ dedicate a percentage of their case load to individuals on a sliding-fee-scale or pro bono, to help bridge the gap for affordable mental health services. We recognize Creative Art Therapies Week honors the importance of how the arts can heal, enhance and help us all to grow.
By Kristin Kane
Through studies encompassing neurobiology, neuroplasticity, and differing functions of the right-brain and left-brain hemispheres, as well as the uncovering of the mirror neuron system, it is now possible to provide scientific evidence for the claim that art therapy is effective in treating a variety of disorders and symptoms including trauma.
Traumatic memory is not inherently verbal. It is felt physically. It is known emotionally. It is re-experienced visually. Yet, to prevent serious mental health issues from taking root, the brain must learn to analyze and understand the trauma as it does other events. As such, there is hope for healing in the sensory and visual experience of art making during art therapy.
During an art therapy intervention, the client has an opportunity to express and externalize his or her inner thoughts and feelings related to the traumatic experience as well the opportunity to process these thoughts and feelings though joining with an empathetic other, the art therapist.
Evidence points to the benefit of not only recounting a challenging experience in the past but also the importance of reframing those experiences as meaningful and connected to a core belief system. Art making can be a vehicle for the expression and externalization of deep and intense emotions and memories. Reclaiming the authorship and perceived meaning of past experiences through art making results in an increased sense of flexibility regarding reactions to external events. This increased flexibility and malleability transforms past negative memories from uncontrollably invading present functioning.
Creativity engagement through art making leads to growth and changes in thought patterns in the brain and can alter dysfunctional behaviors. Art making in a therapeutic environment can create changes in neural network connections as well as increase cognitive flexibility. As options for solving a “creative task” problem expand during the creative process, so do opportunities for neuroplasticity and long-term changes in neural networks in the brain. During the creative process, neurons are utilized and connected in new ways that were not previously connected, therefore increasing possibilities for change and increased healing opportunities.
The following link describes the process of creating a mandala in art therapy:
The following link describes the history of the mandala:
Healing With Mandala Art Therapy – A Multi-Cultural Idea Worth Exploring
This 3rd article in a series by Huffington Post’s Priscilla Frank who has been collaborating with American Art Therapy Association (AATA) to help educate and inform readers about art therapy.
Kristin Kane interview with St. Paul Magazine October 2015.
To some, painting is a hobby. To others, it’s a form of healing. Kristin Kane, an art therapist at Invigorate Life Counseling, says there are many benefits to expressing oneself, whether through clay, paint or chalk.
“Art therapy encourages self expression,” Kane says. “The creative process can open up the unconscious mind and cleanse emotional pain.”
Kane works with people dealing with anxiety, depression, relationship problems, stress and different forms of trauma. The results, she says, are noticeable.
“People gain self confidence and have a better outlook on life by feeling more in control,” Kane says. “Art therapy helps them express themselves non-verbally, then verbally by processing and talking about their work.”
Art therapy is open to people of all ages. Sessions are held in 30-, 45- or 60-minute increments.
Art of Counseling has therapists trained in both art therapy and EMDR, that work with trauma and emotional regulation. Blending art therapy and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) techniques has been reported to be a rich and healing experience for all ages. Below you will find a great article on this subject by Cathy Malchiodi originally posted on Psychology Today .
Image: Visual Journal Entry By Heather Matson 2014
In working with survivors of acute and repeated traumatic events over the last several decades, I am always particularly conscious of individuals’ self-regulating capacities initially and throughout our work together. Self-regulation is currently a ubiquitous term used to describe not only the capacity to control one’s impulses, but also to be able to soothe and calm the body’s 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 function to control impulses, delay actions if necessary and initiate them if necessary, even if one does not want to.
By the simplest definition, bilateral simply means “involving two sides.” Sensory integration is often associated with bilateral techniques that assist individuals in organizing specific sensations via methods found in occupational therapy. In the process of reparation from psychological trauma, various forms of bilateral stimulation or movement seem to be effective in engaging cross-hemisphere activity in the brain (Shapiro, 2001) and in art therapy possibly because it reconnects “thinking” and “feeling” (Malchiodi, 2003/2011) via the sensory-based processes involved in art making. These applications seem to have an impact 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 allowing explicit memory to be reconnected with implicit memory.
Bilateral drawing is a deceptively simple art-based activity that has been around 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 hands” because 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 have used this activity for several decades and actually learned it during college art courses as a way of “loosening up” before beginning to draw or paint. Florence Cane (1951) is one of many early art therapy practitioners who observed a connection between free-form gestural drawing on paper, 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, Cane hypothesized that it is important to engage individuals through movements that go beyond the use of the hands to engage the whole body in natural rhythms. In particular, she refers to large swinging gestures that come from the shoulder, elbow or wrist to not only liberate creative expression, but also act in a restorative capacity to support healthy rhythms in the body and mind. In other words, these rhythmic movements can be practiced in the air and then later transferring them to paper with drawing materials.
Therapists echo Cane’s observations in clinical applications of expressive art with individuals, using several variations of the simple scribble in cases of trauma and bilateral drawing methods (McNamee, 2003) for not only self-regulation, but also in trauma processing (Malchiodi, in press; Urhausen, 2015). In the case of bilateral drawing, there is an assumption that because both hands are engaged that both hemispheres of the brain are stimulated. This concept reflects Shapiro’s model of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) (2001) treatment that involves dual attention 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 within the practice of EMDR seem to be effective, most of these art-based applications have not been thoroughly explained through evidence-based research 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, it can be introduced as a grounding technique because it is a novel, non-threatening yet embodied experience for most individuals. As an expressive arts intervention, bilateral work can also be an embodied process especially if the individual creates using bold gestures and large muscle groups; music can also enhance and shift the dynamics of the experience through various rhythms that stimulate and engage the person on a kinesthetic level.
In work with trauma reactions, I find that bilateral expressive work is useful with both individuals who are easily hyperactivated (fight or flight) 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 paper with both hands simultaneously also creates an attention shift away from the distressing sensations in the body to a different, action-oriented and self-empowered focus. It capitalizes on the embodied, self-soothing experiences originally observed by Cane almost seven decades ago and takes advantage of the power of “drawing on both sides” to alter one’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 Art Therapy (pp. 17-26). New York: Guilford.
McNamee, C. 2003 Bilateral art: Facilitating systemic integration and balance. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 30(5): 283-292. DOI: 10.1016/j.aip.2003.08.005
Shapiro, F. (2001). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). New York: Guilford.
Urhausen, M. T. (2015). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and art therapy with traumatized children. In C. Malchiodi (Ed.), Creative Interventions with Traumatized Children (pp. 45-74). New York: Guilford.
This post is an excerpt from the forthcoming Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy, C. Malchiodi, Guilford Press © 2016 and part of the Creative Arts and Play Therapy Series (link is external) at www.guilford.com (link is external).