Arts for Transformative Experience - Spring course starts on 13-Jan-2023

Welcome to the Arts for Transformation (Art Therapy) course.

Here you can find information on the course content, course dates, and a summary of the course instructor. 

All courses will be recorded and will be available to the course participants for an unlimited time. 

In this eight-week course (one hour and a half weekly), we are going to use Resource Tapping (Bilateral Stimulation) together with meditation and art therapy techniques to improve your mental well-being and reduce your challenging psychological symptoms. 

I encourage participants to practice kindness, respect, non-judging and trustworthyness in my meditation and art-making session. 

Why using painting/drawing and meditation as therapeautic tool:

Using art as a therpeautic tool gives you a voice to communicate your feelings and thoughts. This is because, when we use painting (or other form of arts), we activate the mid-brain, where our emotions and memories reside. Using the expressive arts almost always unlocks the pre-frontal cortex so that the hidden feelings and emotions can be spoken. Through examining the inner self, and the experiences that have shaped you, you have an opportunity to start recognising your strengths. Art therapy can help people deal with strong emotions, increase self-awareness and self-worth and decrease stress and anxiety.  Meditation is a great complimentary tool as it allows self-exploration and awareness of our minds, bodies, feelings and thoughts.

Why using Resource Tapping?

As a bilateral stimulation technique, tapping connect the left and right brain and calms prefrontal cortex. This will allow the processing of the intense emotions and feelings and help to rebalance the nervous system, activate the parasympathetic restoration cycle, and teach self-regulation.

How each session looks like?

In each session after a short recap on how the week has been, we will go through the following stages:

1. Guided meditation.  This stage has the key role in brining out the feelings and thoughts that we will work on during the session. In my work, I define meditation as silencing the consious mind to let the higher conciousness within us speaks with us. We start by calming our body and mind, followed by reading a short inspiring and powerful quote. Then you will be guided through a method of breathing and visualisation with a specific goal and outcome in mind. Each meditation finishes with a RT. This stage takes about 20-30 minutes.

2. The second section of the course is the art making. In some sessions, there are specific themes, but some sessions are open themes depending on the topic. This stage takes about 20-30 minutes.

3. Group discussion and post art making process. When the art making is compeleted, I faciliate the group to have a discussion and if they like share about their work. Also the participants will be guided to be able to summarize their feelings and thoughts. In some sessions we will use a RT technique to calm the mind and make the positive impacts lasting. This stage takes about 30-40 minutes.

Please note: To benefit from this course, you do not need to have any artistic knowledge or background.

What can this course helps you to:

1. Improve the symptoms of PTSD and depressive symptoms. 

2. Acquire a deeper understanding of the pattern of your thoughts and emotions. This will improve your behavioral and emotional patterns & thus you will have healthier emotions and manage your behavioral and emotional issues.

3. Increase mindfulness and present-moment-awareness: removing you from being on autopilot constantly and enabling you to take more logical and informed decisions about your life.

4. Increases resilience and coping abilities during stressful times.

5. Increase life satisfaction and general happiness.

6. Increase your creativity and your performance in your work. 

 

Time & Dates:

Every Thursday from 14:00 to 15:30 (CET time) - Eight weeks.