My thesis is a body-based arts research deeply informed by two life-altering and life shattering spiritual awakenings in the form of Near-Death Experiences that happened in 1991 and 2001. I have spent the years since then trying to integrate and understand the gifts of remembering that were given to me by my Soul and deeper Essence Self. This thesis is an attempt to bring further embodied knowing from these two Near-Death Experiences, to bring something formless into ‘form‘ through a heuristic body-based arts research. The words of Expressive Arts pioneer Daria Halprin, are my catalyst and starting point: “The entire repertoire of our life experiences can be accessed and activated through the body in movement“ (Daria Halprin, 2003). Using the EXA Architecture of a Session and the heuristic process of Clark Moustakas as a frame to hold my explorations, I will take on the role of the change maker-facilitator, then become the client and later, take on the roles of the Mover, the Scribe, and the Witness, to uncover and discover the truth held in this statement for me.

I wrote my thesis about procrastination and motivation in the beginning. After I read a book: Neuroscience - Depression and Chronic Stress of procrastination, I was inspired to switch my focus. A chapter mentioned that frontal lobe memory is started on 18-month. The cause of my procrastination is due to my lack of confidence and low self-esteem. Self-esteem is developed by family when we are born. When I first met Expressive Arts, my motivation was raised. After studying Expressive Arts Therapy, my self-esteem have been naturally enhanced. I decided to research whether Expressive Arts Therapy can help me and other people to enhance self-esteem and motivation. To enhance self-esteem, it is not to do as many as you can to raise it. After research, my crucial discovery is ‘Follow the Flow’ and the most important conclusion is ‘Less is Enough’.

This thesis aims to explore questions of identity, community, and the role of Expressive Arts Therapy as a safe space of discovery in a health crisis. The thesis draws on personal experience and questions, in that sense it is an auto-ethnographic piece of work, with an emphasis on Expressive Arts theories through the lens of reflective research. The Expressive Arts Therapy theories include range of play, imagination, and rituals. The thesis is based on the data and the work done with a group of local women in Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, Mexico, all of whom were or are living with different stages of cancer diagnosis. The work consists of bi-monthly facilitations of multi-modal art and knitting workshops. In addition to the discussion of the work, supporting literature and personal narrative, the thesis presents a sample of the women’s art work. These images and videos are made accessible by QR codes placed accordingly in the thesis, and include footage of the women dancing in a public performance. A banner is made accessible by QR code of the women that has their stories scribed in their torsos. This banner, painted by me, is also included as a footer on the pages that discuss the workshops. My intention is to parallel the personal exploration of the evolving identity, or identities, as a form of scaffolding of the self. When speaking of this construct the role of imagination is addressed and the fundamental role of art in poiesis. The safe space Expressive Arts provides is discussed and how this safety allows for the participants braver explorations

Benjamin Swatez takes us on a journey across the globe throughout this thesis, “The Heart of Resilience Art Expedition - Shifting the Narrative Through the Expressive Arts”. Utilizing examples of past projects, from the streets of post-genocide Bosnia in 2005 to the Congo River in 2021, he draws a parallel between Expressive Arts Therapy and his work sharing art classes and directing community murals with people facing severe adversity. Mr. Swatez also explores how Expressive Arts Therapy can serve in the transformation of conflict and peace building efforts in the heat of gunfire. In both field journal entries and post reflections, this thesis investigates how decentering through the act of art-making, poiesis, can expand the imagination and range of play while living in warzones and high-risk environments, ultimately shifting the narrative from victimization to empowerment, where creativity and action work together to enhance quality of life.

Roots. The word has been a constant, woven and intertwined throughout my childhood. Being born in one country and brought up in many others, defied my understanding of what it meant to be a third culture individual. Picking up and letting go of cultures, ideologies, opinions and perspectives along the journey of growing up, ultimately becoming a product of a society. How one would em- body themselves from their own lived experiences, just how a tree stands up and grows, is a reflection of how far and wide it!roots spread. Whilst it is okay to be led astray, it is important to know how to come back to yourself and to have the arts as a means to journey back. A journey spreading far and wide, finding ways of rerooting back to yourself. How to reach within to grasp inner-connectivity, by fusing together elements that take one back to their core through an artful, phenomenological based approach.

This Master's thesis is dedicated to the great, all-embracing, perpetual human theme of change - transformation - transformation. These transformation processes, which constantly surround us, are examined with regard to the work with clients in coaching and therapy. The research questions are: "What supports a client's change process in a counselling system?" and "Is there a Changing Point?" The paper is based on a theoretical and an empirical part. In the theoretical part, sources on therapy, coaching and consulting on different methods, Expressive Arts, Analytical Psychology, Nature Therapy and Psychotherapy were analysed. In addition, expert interviews were conducted with Paolo J. Knill, Herbert Eberhart and Peter Wanzenried. First, relevant terms were defined, in chapter 2 own sense and experience processes in Art-Based-Research were presented and in chapter 4 case studies from practice were described. The results of the theoretical analysis are the basis for the empirical investigation. Thus, the results show that the interpersonal encounter and the associated resonance, also in the professional environment, is one of the most important factors for a supportive change process.

This paper explores the fusion of expressive arts therapy, curanderismo, and reiki for the purposes of healing. It seeks to connect my own cultural and traditional methods of healing through curanderismo. Curanderismo is a traditional Mexican healing modality. The client I used for my case study is Mexican. The shared cultural background of myself and the client acts as an entry point to expressive arts. Although curanderismo and expressive arts come from vastly different cultures and parts of the world they share many things in common as well as have distinctive differences. This will be explored as well. My thesis will seek to acknowledge and honor indigenous ways of knowing and healing that have been historically invalidated and eradicated due to colonization and white supremacy. My writing will explore how being culturally sensitive lends itself to deeper healing and an opportunity to bridge cultural differences and respect people's diverse ways of knowing and healing.

The purpose of this study is to explore the ways by which artists and expressive arts therapists can more closely attend to emergent processes and images as they occur. I sought to explore with peers ways that support us in being aware of what is happening in the present moment, and to invite myself and others into a context of knowing and understanding the landscape of the present moment. The participants undertook a month-long daily present moment practice exploration that was shared aesthetically in a WhatsApp Group chat, culminating in a weekend expressive arts therapy workshop on Zoom. Ideas around therapeutic presence, Buddhism (specifically the doctrines of Anatta and Vipassana), mindfulness and expressive arts therapy are explored and discussed. The notion of contemplative EXA is considered. The results establish that presence takes practice. Play, mindfulness meditation, community and collaboration, surrendering to what wants to emerge and listening to the body support the process of following the emergent.

This thesis is an exploration of martial arts, Expressive Arts and serious play. I started studying EXA and martial arts at the same time, and quickly began seeing similarities between my EXA studies and the training approach of Valkyrie Western Martial Arts Assembly. As I dug deeper into the philosophical and theoretical links between EXA and Valkyrie training, I grew to recognize that at the very core of both was a recognized but largely unspoken commitment to what I have come to call serious play. On one level, this thesis is a document on how and why martial arts might be used in EXA. On another level, it became the story of my convoluted path to recognizing the power of serious play and its life-changing potential.

The encounter between horses and expressive arts therapy: bounding perspective. A round trip to our essence This investigation explores the importance of expressive arts therapy in the encounter between humans and horses from a bounding perspective. Also, proposes a new methodology in work with horses and art. It begins with the love and admiration for horses of the author of this thesis. In that way, she integrates arts-based research with heuristic phenomenology and case studies. “The encounter between horses and expressive arts therapy…” has the mission to respond to these following questions: how does the encounter between horses and expressive arts therapy allow us to recognize and transform our bond with others? How can work with horses from the expressive arts help us to reevaluate our way of bounding? How does it allow me to strengthen my work as an expressive arts therapist? How does it promote bonding in the expressive arts? And how does it generate consciousness about the bond with others? It is necessary to use three research methods. First, art-based research proposes the artistics process to examine every participant in the theraphy. Second, hermeneutic phenomenology understands the vivid experience of the participant through the therapist perspective. Third, research based on case studies collects knowledge from the experience of one or more participants. Also, this investigation integrates various theoretical perspectives. The topics that were considered were the history of horses, equine etiology (characteristics and behavior), Animal-assisted therapy and equine-assisted therapy. The human bond, anthrozoology, expressive arts therapy, Ecopoiesis and therapeutic bond are also other methodologies used in this thesis. Also, the author decides to work with Abril, a mare that belongs to her family. In a personal diary, she wrote about the relationship and then the bond established with Abril. In the process, it shows that the horses learn no-verbal communication from humans. This opens, from the therapist 's side, the possibility to see horses as ‘coherency teachers’. Also, horses and their character serve the participant to open their senses. Remember that the expressive arts therapy made an analysis through the senses. During this process, the author had three principal experiences. First, “The colorful dance”. This allowed the repair and transformation of the connection with Abril. Second and third were artistic compositions dedicated to her parents and a video where crystallized the experience through senses. With this knowledge, the investigation developed a previous model of intervention that was applied in the study of three cases: individual therapeutic session, a group session and a business-level session. This are the most important findings: Is important to recognize and accept the most important bond: to ourselves Work with ourselves and, consequently, with others. This allows us to recognize our way to bond and built the best version of ourselves In the encounter with horses and expressive arts, horses gives us the possibility of connecting from the senses The sensibilization process starts and depends on the connection of our senses with the horse The nature of horses allows us to be in the present. We become aware of our senses and connect with our present and others The interaction with horses shows us the reactions to our actions or emotions The recognition and management of our emotions have a greater impact in the expressive arts Art shows us those thoughts that remain in the unconscious. It can be crystallized through actions and words To work with the unconscious is important to connect with the body and senses, as if we were children again Art includes awareness of the senses, but, for certain groups, letting go fears and judgments requires a deeper process Therapy with horses and the expressive arts is a new and interesting topic to investigate. Horses give us the opportunity to connect and transform the bonds with them and then with ourselves. Finally, we deepen it through making-art

This thesis is a research exploration of the transformative processes that can be experienced through learning the art of classical ballet and participating in choreographic creations while integrating the Expressive Arts. I am convinced that a dancer can truly ‘speak’ with her/his/their body in such a way that people can ‘hear’ the communication of a message. After personally experiencing throughout my lifetime the often abusive and maladaptive pedagogical approaches which unfortunately still exist in the dance world, I endeavour to invite students of my dance school, Atelier Rainbow Tanzkunst, into a healthily artistic and holistic world. Here, their ‘imaginative beings’ catalyze processes of communication, personal development, and shared humanity. I believe that every person has the possibility to connect with and create magical imaginative beings while in a dance process, especially choreographies. Through heuristic and qualitative arts-based research approaches, I delve into how and when these beings are summoned and the subsequent effects they have on the technical, intellectual, artistic, and emotional evolution of the students. Implementing elements of the Expressive Arts in combination with classical ballet has been an enormous inspiration for me, creating many artistic adventures and making me aware of the multifaceted development of individual inner processes and group dynamics while students are learning to dance. The challenge of keeping the dance process in a salutogenic state, supporting the multi-intelligences of all the beings involved, is a life-long search.

In the turbulent social environment, while the youth workers support young people's physical and mental needs, their compassion is gradually fatigued. Based on the Salutogenic model as a structural framework. Decentering, Diet and medicine in expressive art therapy as a practical method. Discuss how young workers find their inner-physical and mental balance in three aspects: awareness, response and sense of meaning. Even in hardships, youth workers can maintain a stable body and mind after establishing a sustainable artistic life and keep walking with the youth.

This thesis sheds light on hidden aspects of maternity which can be the most painful and least shared. Bottled-up negative feelings can cause distress and postpartum depression. Six women between the ages of 25-45 who had experienced difficulties in their birthing experiences, were impacted by participating in an EXA workshop with the objective to foster connection, using the arts as a container. The EXA group impacted their self-esteem as well as the quality of the interactions between mother and child and mother and her whole support system. I believed that an EXA group would improve maternal self-esteem, self-image and an improvement in their closest relationships. Results showed that mothers reported higher levels of self satisfaction and a more positive self-image as a result of the workshop. Many of them were able to integrate their more positive attitude and their capacity of self reflection into their behavior and interactions with their babies.

Dr Gary Chapman wrote the popular book The Five Love Languages – How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to your Mate. With the theme of The Five Love Languages, I conducted a series of Expressive Arts Workshops for couples. I was excited to witness them enjoying the experience with laughter; finding out the key love language of themselves and their spouse on their own rather than being told; getting the awareness that they had to speak their spouse’s love language; re-igniting hope and gaining the power to change their behaviour to express their love more effectively. All participants gave feedback that “This activity helps me to express love to others” with top box rating and “helps/helps a lot to improve the relationship between husband and wife”.

This thesis explores what happens when presence is brought to the stress of parents through the use of expressive arts. It involves parents who wanted to explore in their stress release as well as parent-child relationship. Their awareness of “here and now” had been enhanced and they got other perspective on their family relationship. Presence enhanced their life.

Because of the domination of virtual world, our sense was dulled. Maybe human sense cannot catch up the rapid development of modern technologies and life values, the way human interact with eachother are changed totally, it can lead to a lack of confidence and mental health problems, like anxiety, depression and stress, then both of the heart and mind are overwhelmed. Day by Day, year by year, people unable to show a positive side and become vulnerable. Some people around me who are trapped by emotional problems, happiness seems so far away to them, their soul feel dry and empty.

​Talking recalling child's state as the motivation of this research, to explore the relationship between EXA and Inner child, to investigate the possibility of EXA can recall our child's state.

A layered and decolonized divination revealing the role of spirituality in cross-cultural EXAT through autoethnography, a/r/tography, and expressive arts based research.

With the recent economic and political change in Hong Kong and the influence of the global environment, including the high-stress lifestyle, the wave of emigration and Covid-19, many people are suffering. Hong Kong people have to face the threat of death at any time and the anxiety of losing loved ones. The long-term instability in Hong Kong impacts their psychological health. People have to face turbulent times, just like meeting the unpredictable ocean. This article is to study how expressive art therapy, to create and discover the beauty of things through different forms of art, to retrieve "the true, the good and the beautiful" in people so that they have the resources to build their boats and have the ability to sail steadily in the sea and ride the wind and waves.

Fear of judgment can prevent individuals from sharing their artistic gifts with others. This thesis spotlights the act of performance, integrating performance theory and expressive arts methods to expand upon the relational elements of performance. The author examines the following questions: “How can Expressive arts influence how we engage with the performing arts?” and “What can the arts practice of performance evoke in us?” This research details a series of live open mic sessions, titled The Gift Exchange, offered by the author to the public through a virtual platform. Participants engaged in active giving and receiving through performing arts, discovering authentic connections, internal validation, and further inspiration. Many LGBTQIA+ artists contributed to The Gift Exchange, uncovering themes of visibility and queer joy through the exchange of performance. This research hopes to provide expressive arts practitioners resources in performing arts, as well as performing artists perspectives in expressive arts practices.

Many people who suffered from the 2019 social unrest in Hong Kong and the COVID-19 pandemic have experienced symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety, leading to severe emotional and behavioural maladjustment.

In this paper, I explore how nature as co-therapist can be incorporated into therapeutic practice with the elements of self-regulation, home-coming, inner challenges, navigating to imaginary world, and embracing new possibilities (SHINE). The depressive symptoms of the participants were alleviated through their interaction with the natural environment.

In the process of change, participants have embodied new felt experiences and opened up to new perspectives.  As they became artists, through being listened to and witnessed, their self-efficacy has been enhanced, meanwhile, they received support and encouragement from the group.

As a COVID-19 outbreak overwhelms, Hong Kong has changed dramatically and very quickly. We experience an unusual approach to pause. Existing and living were shattered by this abrupt onslaught, and let people be in a state of fear. In this study, a sequence of visual, sound, and movement expressions was utilized to explore how engagement in the pause moment influenced participants’ articulation of a sense of awareness associated with their creative process. The research questions were, “How the EXA process can help us discover and restore our inner resources in the paused moment?” and “How does the whole therapeutic process can trigger the power of imagination to cultivate positive facing fear?”

This paper explores the intersection of expressive arts therapy and Autism Spectrum Disorder. ASD is viewed through the lense of disability rights, disability justice, and the social model of disability, and from the perspective of an artist, mother, therapist, and researcher. The guiding question for this research is, within the emergent landscape of the social model of disability and neurodiversity acceptance, what role can expressive arts therapy have in providing support for people living with autism? This thesis investigates historical theories about autism and looks at the shifting landscape of disability including current understandings that look at autism not from a social deficit model, but from a resource and strengths-based model. It is an inquiry into how EXA may be a part of this movement. My research is arts based and heuristic in nature and spans over nine years, within multiple settings, including individual work, facilitated playdates, and collaborative art events with children and youth on the autism spectrum.

Context is crucial to any research, especially phenomenological research which is rooted in my Reason for Being, my personal observations of my experience of myself, my perspective, my process, my products and my purpose for being. My name is Karma Michelle Cloud and this is my thesis on mastering myself as an Intermodal Expressive Arts Person, Process/Product/Purpose and Practitioner. In this thesis I share insights about: Song Catching as an art modality, Mantra Medicine, as an artistic outcome of Song Catching and its applications for Expressive Arts Coaching and Education, and, MindfulMetamorphosis, my practice of living and learning and the protocol developed from that practice to effectively facilitate Expressive Arts experiences across multiple disciplines and aspects of Life. The title of my thesis is Mothering Self Mastery through Mantra Medicine and MindfulMetamorphosis. It is important to note that I view and experience Life as ever evolving, solving and resolving itself. Therefore, please approach this thesis as such. It is complete and incomplete, as am I. It is an ever evolving body of writing that attempts to articulate the purpose of my Creative Life Process and the process of Creating Purpose with my Life as I perceive and experience. Even as I write, it unfolds. The fact that it has taken me nearly 20 years to submit something close to “completion” is living proof of how closely I weave together the threads of Living and Learning. They are truly interwoven into one ever evolving Living-Learning magic carpet. To extract myself from Living in order to write about what I have learned from my lived experiences has not been my Life Calling, until now. Life has had me fully engaged in weaving Living wisdom within my webs of co-creation, mothering not only my own self mastery, but mentoring and ministering to others as they too learn to weave wisdom within themselves. Until now, my impulse, instinct and intuition has been to stay with the Living-Learning experience as it is, keeping its mystery intact and being mindful not to over-examine anything in isolation. I keenly remember thinking to myself after completing my “Masters” course work in 2007, “It will take me at least 20 years before I consider myself a master of anything, let alone myself.” So in retrospect, I am right on time despite whatever external expectations may be imposed. I am a staunch believer that Life, and only Life, initiates me when I am ready, not institutions or degrees. It does so according to divine timing which I do not control, dictate or determine. When Life calls, I respond and so it is. And so it is with this thesis. I suppose I have accumulated enough living-learning experiences for Life to open the time-space continuum within my mind and daily grind to find the words to retrace, reflect and retell my journey to self mastery. So let’s start at the beginning.

This thesis highlights the evolving relationship between Expressive Arts Therapy and dance in outreach and dance education settings. I reflect upon my emergence into the arts and transition from professional dancer and educator to expressive arts therapist. My dance facilitations with youth and seniors explore reaching out toward a collective in playful and unexpected ways, while reaching in toward toward self-discovery and freedom. The work examines how phenomenology and embodiment develop awareness and a whole-bodied approach to movement creation and art-making. By merging dance with the expressive arts, the process becomes a welcome place for intermodal discovery, creative play and collaboration. My methods include improvisation, partnering, dancing in a landscape, and interacting with art in a gallery. Students experience more confidence to encounter their artistic voice, connect to others and leave the dance studio with a sense of belonging.

Started with simplicity and frames, basic principles of “low skill/ high sensitivity” and “less is more” I go further. Thanks to the personal creative process, studying and experience of therapeutic and educational work with people a new significant concept of freedom arose. Freedom which appears in frames, frames which provide, set up space for freedom. In the thesis I research meanings and feelings, look for appearances of freedom in different parts of the expressive arts methodology and creative process. In the research of meanings of freedom, I pay attention to the breadth of this concept, phenomenology of freedom in a field of everyday life reflected in Russian language, as well as in fields of politics, jurisprudence, process of evolution. I also present views on freedom in psychology and psychotherapy, touching concepts of self-determination, differentiation, bonding (attachment), addiction, will, choice, subjectivity, autonomy etc. and pay special attention to the features of the process of forming and developing freedom in ontogenesis.