Expressive Arts
“Art that arises out of the inner landscape, and is connected to our lived experience, illuminates the darkness and heals the soul.”
Anna Halprin
Movement-based expressive art is a creative approach to understanding and exploring self, story and potential through the expressive arts. By tracking inwardly on the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels of awareness, we gain material for our written, moving and visual expression.
Our life experiences and internal states are translated into forms of expression such as movement, visual art and writing. These expressions—whether they are colors, symbols, words, or textures—serve as a way to make our internal world visible, tangible and relatable.
By creating and reflecting on these expressions, we gain new perspectives on ourselves and our experiences. This process helps to integrate our insights and emotions, fostering a sense of wholeness and living artfully with the wound.
THE PROCESS:
Each session starts with a check-in, where we explore what’s currently happening in your life, what you’re aware of and any issues or concerns you’d like to explore further. We then use creative exploration to engage with this material.
During the session, we might draw to visually represent your thoughts or feelings, write a story or poem about the situation, and move in response to the drawings or story. This creative process helps externalize your situation, creating space for poignant insight and integration.
After engaging in drawing, movement, and writing, we conclude with a ‘check-out’ period where we discuss at-home practices to continue integrating and working with the insights gained.
The gift:
- Integrate and make sense of fragmented or disjointed experiences.
- Discover more about yourself by exploring how you create and express through art.
- Sense how habitual movements in your body relate to emotional responses and experiment with new movement possibilities.
- Reveal and interpret the stories and emotions held within your body.
- Address and transform the difficulties and obstacles you encounter.
- Give expression to thoughts, feelings, and experiences that might otherwise remain unconscious.
- Cultivate new outlets for creativity and personal expression.
- Craft and reframe your personal story through artistic expression, creating a sense of coherence and meaning.
- Deepen self-understanding and insight into your inner world through creative expression.
- Process and transform complex emotions, fostering emotional resilience.
- Empower yourself through the creative process, gaining confidence and agency in expressing and addressing personal challenges.
- Improve your awareness of bodily sensations and movements, leading to greater physical and emotional alignment.
- Engage in creative processes that support profound personal growth and transformation.
wHAT OTHERS SAY...
“Working with Julie is working with soul. She brings a rare level of depth and listening to her work. Julie’s commitment to community development through the written word, movement, and image, as well as her work with dreams, offers a crystalline perspective. This perspective includes an edge of continued learning and commitment to the earth and all bodies. I am lucky to know and learn with her, and you would be too.”