This dissertation is an intermodal, interdisciplinary, arts-based, exploration of seeking Beauty as a core human quality, through sensory-centered, communal art practice. Philosophically, this inquiry considers the implications of how we position ourselves in our life-world with Beauty and how seeking Beauty shapes our “being” in the world.

This thesis explores how to guide individuals safely from sensitization into decentering following traumatic events. The questions and research were motivated by personal experiences of dissociation during the decentering phase of post-traumatic events. Delving into the core principles of Expressive Arts Therapy and Somatic Experiencing®, the literature review provides insight into how these two approaches could mutually inform one another. Employing arts-based and heuristic methodologies in both spontaneous and structured inquiry phases, the study illustrates how integrating EXA and trauma healing principles enhances clients’ capacity to navigate safely from sensitization into decentering. The process prioritizes attunement, presence, and adaptability to prevent retraumatization. Emphasizing personalized approaches tailored to individuals with traumatic histories, the study highlights the sensitivity and effectiveness of EXA within trauma recovery contexts. Overall, this research offers insights into facilitating safe transitions and enriching trauma recovery contributing to the ongoing discourse on trauma-informed care and therapeutic interventions.

This thesis examines the impact of Expressive Arts Therapy and facilitation techniques on early childhood development in daycare and preschool settings in British Columbia on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem First Nation). It also follows the development of a child through online modalities. Children from diverse backgrounds were engaged in an Expressive Arts approach, challenging conventional early childhood systems and societal beliefs. The study finds that Expressive Arts not only foster early childhood development but also enhance the caregiver-child relationship. Furthermore, this research suggests that empowering caregivers, teachers, and therapists to employ Expressive Arts techniques addresses the gap between the needs of young children and the current system's limitations. The study advocates for adults to create environments that encourage artistic expression and foster continual creative engagement in children's daily lives. The belief is sustained that, by nourishing children, we nourish communities and create impactful societal change.

Art is a gateway to the path of personal discovery. An open attitude allows humans to express themselves through different forms of art-making. Improvisation is one of the key elements in the process of making art. When transforming my music improvisation exercises into other art forms, new discoveries about myself come up. I become attuned to the world around me. This attunement creates a time for deep and intimate conversations which respond to my inner self’s needs. It creates a safe container that allows me to release, relax and express my feelings deeply and freely. Healing and a way out emerges.

The following paper seeks to explore the process of how the creation of a personal art practice can facilitate and be a self-enriching resource for those experiencing dire straights in life and in particular, vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue. Inspired by my account of recovery through the arts, a literature review of trauma theory, Polyvagal Theory, salutogenesis, and self-compassion sets the scene for inquiry. A heuristic methodology will then be used to explore the experience through art-based research and autoethnography, supported by the expressive arts. The metaphor of a shipwreck has been interwoven into the paper as a helper to articulate complex experiences as well as to reflect the centrality of the arts in Expressive Arts Therapy. This self-inquiry will be enriched in conversation with one other case study that explores how expressive arts therapy sessions can facilitate the development of personal art practices for self-care for both client and therapist.

 This thesis explores the role of therapeutic space on the therapeutic process for the client and therapist as it relates to expressive art therapy, and ones strive for a higher sense of coherence. A “good-enough” space is one that meets the variety of needs a client may require and although imperfect, it can still serve the work. The research follows a theoretical and phenomenological approach. Four expressive arts therapy case studies are explored thoroughly. The cases cover different populations in different areas, classified into the following: 1) Medium to high socio-economic individuals in a desert retreat 2) Low socio-economic individuals in a ‘slum’ area 3) High socio-economic individuals on the roof of a high-end neighborhood 4) Refugees meeting in a local coworking space. An instrument in the form of two checklists is created to assess if a therapeutic space can be considered “good enough”, It is further used when discussing the case studies. International research from therapeutic and non-therapeutic settings is covered for both general and specific populations. The literature indicated therapeutic space design has a positive influence on the therapeutic process, as well as a significant role in the relationship between clients and therapists These design considerations are accessible, adaptable, and applicable to expressive art therapy and other related fields. The roles of the therapist and client in the design process, limitations of this paper, and future direction of research are also identified. A “good-enough” space is important to serve the intention of a therapeutic process.

We use hands to write, draw, paint, play music and play with anything We use hands to eat, drink, sleep to survive We hold our left with right, inner with outside It fluctuates with sparkles Waggles with balance Flows, expanding further, wider The boundary pushed farther away —-A poem of hands appreciation This thesis presents my art-based research initiated by life-long inquiries about my art journey emerging before 2019. The year 2019 was the turning point, when the social lockdown situation had provided me with enough time to understand my life’s resources. My thesis looks for a simple way for us to adapt to life’s unexpected life challenges through both Clark Moustakas’s heuristic process and Shaun McNiff’s art based research. I have devoted years deepening my comprehension as an artist, facilitator, witness, and scribe. Using the EXA architecture and heuristic art-based research to ground the sessions, the exploration spiraled from simple hand movements to an intermodal ritual as a framework for a daily practice. The intermodal ritual as a daily practice as well as a specific method was developed to raise practitioners’ and participants’ awareness, to build their resilience through difficulties.

The spontaneous emergence of objects and forms when my hands encounter clay has been fascinating me. My thesis aims to display this way of entering artistic activity, when the focus is based on sensory perceptions. Touch is the preferred mode, and clay is the chosen medium I will use in the phase of art-making, called decentering in Expressive Arts. Exploring my sensations and expanding my capacity to sense into them, instead of using solely the power of imagination seem to me a relevant approach to working with the arts in this field. Touching and shaping clay led me to access a world of intense and rich sensations and opened me up to surprising discoveries. This thesis reveals the main aspects of my experience and uses research to follow multiple tracks and methods. One of these will be the description of my experience as it lends itself to my perception in decentering. The other is investigating an image, that of the snail who emerged spontaneously in the art-making, and who serves as a metaphor to discuss this approach. I follow its track using a combination of heuristic and art-based research methodologies. These have provided tools in better understanding the meaning and structure of the phenomenon that revealed itself. The results are an investigation and reflection on the experience of touching clay through the prism of my own experience.

This thesis explores the decentering experience in the Singaporean context. It looks at the author’s interest of entering an Expressive Arts training through personal experiences and observation of the arts by working with different individuals. It also looks at the definition of decentering as someone being able to enter an experience of working with the different modalities of the expressive arts with the aim being to try and experience these from different perspectives (Eberhart, 2012, 2017; P. J. Knill, 2005; Levine, 2015). The thesis will document the author’s personal experiences with decentering as well as the observed decentering experiences with the participants. It will look at potential macro factors that may have impacted the ease with which people experienced decentering (Bach & Christensen, 2021; Bedford & Chua, 2018, 2018; Cheng & Hong, 2017; Goransson, 2015; Ng et al., 2021; Quek, n.d.). Finally, working with the suggestions of the research participant in finding a medium that was concrete and familiar but also which allowed exploration and experiential adaptation (Eberhart, 2014; Hidajaturrokhmah et al., 2022; P. J. Knill, 2005, 2017a; Levine, 2015).

This book is an initiatory guide that delves into the philosophy of Expressive Arts Therapy as a path to embrace life as a pilgrim rather than as a mere tourist. This narrative centres on the profound theme of forgiveness, detailing how I harnessed the arts to transcend pain and how I rewrote myself a more empowered narrative to be in service of the exiled. The content of this book highlights the fading significance of rituals in our world, advocating for artistic rituals adapted to our modern lifestyles wherein the Soul tends to exile from our bodies. With a critical examination of some contemporary modern mental health systems and how it they have negatively impacted the human spirit throughout history: Creative Rituals serve us here as homecoming pilgrimages back to our centres. Throughout my organization Art For peace, I have been supporting individuals and vulnerable population and together we will dive into in the depth of how, more specifically, Expressive Arts Therapy empowered myself and the communities I am serving. This script contends that modern rituals, channelled through the arts, hold the potential to empower humanity, fostering deeper intimacy between individuals by awakening the innate sensitive nature within. This journey is an invitation to collectively embark on a pilgrimage, forging a path towards greater human connection.

This thesis explores how expressive arts therapy may support those who have experienced pregnancy loss. The question is inspired by personal experience with grief, loss and strength after a complicated miscarriage while studying and practising expressive arts therapy. This paper includes a three-part expressive arts therapy pregnancy loss support group for individuals, all identifying as women, who have had one or more pregnancy loss. The research found that expressive arts therapy has the capacity to support its clients on their journey after a loss through expressive communication and art-making, a community container, and ritual or rites of restoration. All participants felt the impacts of the group supported in the arts.

Invisible Warriors is an arts-based narrative multi-case study, that unravels four forensic psychiatric patients’ trans-personal arts experiences inside a state hospital in New York. By presenting through an autoethnographic style, the researcher takes readers to the interior of a state hospital, recounting her first encounters with the state hospital population and her intrinsic process of getting to know the protagonists featured in the study. The tinkuy theory (Calderon, 2015) becomes the central axis of this dissertation: all the encounters are brought to life by the idea of interpersonal/intergroup learning and integrating. The main body of the research focuses on shaping four art-as-testimony (Meyer DeMott, 2007) case narratives where every spoken word and drawn imagery are constructed to demonstrate each warrior’s aesthetic encounters on the ward. Each case narrative features one protagonist’s oral testimony, movement presentations, songs, performances, drawings, poetries, and the researcher’s reflexive meditation. The aesthetic encounter also extends to reconnecting the fragmented parts of the researcher herself in the form of aesthetic response, which unfolds the researcher’s evolutionary journey of understanding the topics of suffering, imagination, joy, and liberation in the realm of embodied arts and aesthetic living.

This thesis delves into the pivotal role of "A-ha moments" in facilitating enduring and positive transformations within the frameworks of Expressive Arts Therapy complemented by Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The primary objective is to illuminate the unique elements that contribute to profound changes in clients' lives within each therapeutic domain. The subsequent exploration aims to discern how the strengths of both Expressive Arts Therapy and CBT can be synergistically interwoven, creating a comprehensive and life-changing therapeutic process for the ultimate benefit of the client. It is a participatory qualitative research, which focuses on the meaning making process of the participants and the way perceive and process their experiences (Smith, J. A., & Osborn, M., 2015) The research begins with a detailed examination of the distinctive elements inherent in each therapeutic approach that foster transformational changes. Drawing on the principles and techniques of Expressive Arts Therapy and CBT, my work seeks to identify key factors contributing to breakthrough moments and positive shifts in clients' internal and external realities. The subsequent phase involves an exploration of the potential integration of the most effective elements from both therapeutic modalities. By understanding and leveraging the strengths of Expressive Arts Therapy and CBT, the aim is to create a holistic and dynamic therapeutic approach that maximizes positive outcomes for clients, as well as a much more extensive recognition and usage in the world.

The dissertation touches on a wide range of issues at the intersection of consciousness research, cultural research, and art research, including psychosemiotic research, visual semiotics, psycholinguistics, and cross-cultural studies of consciousness. It considers languages of consciousness, culture, and art to describe the language of expressive arts that unites and considers the languages mentioned above. This dissertation combines theoretical, auto-ethnographic art-based autobiographical, and cross-cultural expressive art-based research, as well as phenomenological microanalysis of therapeutic sessions conducted using intermodal expressive arts therapy. The process of intermodal expressive arts therapy is explained from the point of view of L. S.Vygotsky's cultural-historical psychology and studies of consciousness. The figurative and polymodal language of consciousness is congruent to the language of art. Levels of aesthetic analysis of the art form (P.Knill, S.Levine) are explained as a journey through the poles of the psychosemiotic tetrahedron of the image of consciousness (F.E.Vasilyuk). The process of giving birth to meaning in the territory of expressive arts is seen as an illustration of a mottos of expressive arts practitioners: «making art-making meanings». This dissertation classifies and describes the criteria necessary for successful expressive arts therapy. I draw parallels between the substitution model (P.Knill) and the idea of cultural mediation (L.S.Vygotsky), in which manipulations of art forms become substitute actions that allow you to get closer to solving problems, breaking deadlocks, using the Other as an intermediary. The paper examines the role of the Other in the concept of resonances and introduces the concepts of “aesthetic resonance.” The paper develops and describes methodological and theoretical foundations for identifying a new branch of expressive art therapy, which can be called “a culture-oriented expressive arts therapy” as a modern anthropological practice. This leads to the introduction of culture-related questions into the theory and practice of expressive arts. Several new concepts, such as the “culture of the work of consciousness” and “the culture of image” are introduced. In culture-oriented expressive arts, any art form belonging to traditional or modern culture is understood as a means of the attunement of consciousness and as a connector, bridge, and encounter which contributes to “expanding the play range“ (P.Knill) while providing a frame, becoming a kind of a “decentering process“ when it comes into contact with a different culture and a means of both strengthening identity and searching for it when it comes to native culture. This understanding has a wide range of applications. I address some of them by describing examples of my work with multicultural groups and the use of art forms from various traditional and modern cultures in working with Russian participants. Using cultural phenomenological approach the paper examines and describes “Meeting Point”, a cross-cultural, expressive art-based research study with participation of Russian expressive arts students and students from India, Hong Kong, Peru, Finland, the USA, Japan, and other countries. The study became an act of peacemaking, establishing bridges through the language of the expressive arts using traditional art forms (traditional music) and multidialog between people, and tracing the play of consciousness as an experience of unity and diversity.

This thesis explores the use of expressive art therapy (EXA) to promote well-being among adolescents in Hong Kong. EXA combines different art forms such as visual art, dance, drama, and music to help people express emotions and enhance healing. The study involved providing art therapy sessions for a group of Hong Kong adolescents aged 15 to 19. The aim was to provide a safe space for self-exploration and discovery through engaging with various art modalities. The art therapy process encouraged self-reflection, self-acceptance, letting go of perfectionism, and developing a positive self-image. While the researcher expected EXA to foster gratitude, resilience, and optimism as forms of well-being, the research findings revealed that adolescents valued self-acceptance the most as a foundation for well-being. Through the process of creating and reflecting on their artwork, adolescents learned to be kinder to themselves and accept perceived flaws. The EXA experience highlighted the need for adolescents to develop authenticity and body-mind awareness as crucial aspects of well-being.

This thesis examines how Expressive Arts Therapy can be a way of creating clarity for High Sensitive Persons. Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), a term coined by Dr Elaine Aron in the mid-1990s, referring to approximately 20% of the population, is more affected by stimuli in the environment which could make them overwhelmed easily and more confused of own needs at times. As a HSP myself, I arrived at this topic through a re-discovery of my high sensitivity and the experience of this innate trait being honored as a valuable resource to create clarity in my learning of Expressive Arts Therapy. The methodology of art-based research on my own healing journey and case studies of two highly sensitive clients in the framework of Expressive Arts Therapy were adopted. Research results suggest that Expressive Arts Therapy facilitated the intrapersonal communication of myself and the two clients and provided a non-judgmental safe space from stimuli for the clients and made their high sensitivity a big resource, together with their rich imagination and their ability to make connections across themes, to create clarity. In the containment of Expressive Arts Therapy, the two clients embody the idea that their innate trait can be a gem instead of a hindrance in everyday life. The results encourage further research on more HSPs including factors such as gender, age and cultural background for a bigger picture of the connection between Expressive Arts Therapy and Highly Sensitive Persons.