ART THERAPY REFLECTIONS: Therapeutic Thursday: Talking about being Present

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Therapeutic Thursday: Talking about being Present

I find it helpful to have reminders throughout the day that help me remember to come back to Presence. Being Present simply means being in the here and now, and not pulled into past memories or preoccupied by planning the future.

Here are some reminders:

1) Before taking the first bite of your food, check-in with yourself to see if you are Present.
2) Use walking through doorways as a wake-up call to be Present.
3) Use starting your car as an invitation to be Present.
4) Frame stepping into the shower or bath tub as stepping into a state of Presence.

4 comments:

simply h² said...: I completely agree, I forget to live in the present sometiems too - always thinking about what's coming next. Nice post.

http://www.hsquaredfashion.blogspot.com; December 2, 2010 at 7:50 AM
Elena said...: OOOH I love that picture. I read your post with a huge smile because it fits right in with mine today too. Great reminders; especially like the symbolic nature of walking through the doorway. Thanks for sharing.; December 2, 2010 at 8:53 AM
The Creative Beast said...: This is a great post and I love the small rituals you've suggested for being PRESENT...it reminds me of a quote:

Yesterday is History
Tomorrow is a Mystery but
Today is a Gift, that is why it's called a PRESENT

=-); December 2, 2010 at 10:56 AM
TOMAS said...: I enjoyed your post greatly. While taking the first bite of food happens each day - each hour anew and anew , that rarely is titled as an awesome fiesta, BECAUSE of the lack of Presence spices. Thank you for the help to grasp the above.
Your post helps greatly to improve the taste of daily walk.
With gratitude and love from http://tomassketchbook.blogspot.com/; December 11, 2010 at 9:43 AM

What is Art Therapy?

Art therapy is typically referred for situations in which words are difficult (ex: grief and loss), if there is a mind-body relationship to the nature of a person's trauma (ex: sexual abuse, PTSD), or for clients who are inept with words (ex: children, persons with a communication disability). Art therapy is also often sought out by clients who seek a more tangibly productive therapy (literally “rolling up your sleeves”), enjoy expressing themselves visually (artists, architects, crafters, etc.), or for whom talk therapy has not achieved the desired outcome and want to try something new. Art therapy is generally described as a highly illuminating, enjoyable, and unique experience.

In my work I see individual clients who are exploring issues such as depression, anxiety, stress, life transitions, abuse and trauma. I use psycho-education, cognitive behavior techniques, solution-oriented and expressive therapies.

I draw on a wide variety of theories to create an integrative approach. I am client centered and use techniques and theories which 'fit' the client. I am a practicing artist and combine theories in a very creative way in my practice to facilitate clients' journeys through change.

Some of the tools I use in my work are sand tray, all forms of art making, life mapping, goal setting, relaxation techniques, guided visualizations, journal and creative writing, movement, somatic experiencing techniques, stress reduction techniques, reframing, EMDR, Focusing, mindfulness meditation techniques and play therapy.

Focusing Oriented Expressive Therapy

Focusing Oriented Expressive Therapy
Do you want to learn how to:
· Be a better listener to yourself?
· Make clear choices?

· Be calm and compassionate to yourself?
· Support yourself through change?
· Feel relaxed and stress free?

Focusing helps you learn how to be Present and listen to yourself so that you can move ahead in your life in an empowered and safe way. Focusing brings you closer to wholeness and allows you to access your inner wisdom. This helps you move in the direction of your potential. It can help you move beyond blocks and get in touch with your goals. Focusing is a gentle and powerful way to develop a deep interpersonal healing relationship with yourself. Awareness of sensations in the body can be blocked through habits of dissociation and repression. This is because the sensation maybe uncomfortable or painful, and we are not trained to focus on this inner knowing and awareness of the body.

Learning Focusing to Help Free the Artist in You

Do you want to learn how to:
· Be a better listener to yourself?
· Make clear choices?

· Be calm and compassionate to yourself?
· Support yourself through change?
· Feel relaxed and less stressful?

Focusing helps you learn how to be Present and listen to yourself so that you can move ahead in your life in an empowered and safe way. Focusing brings you closer to wholeness and allows you to access your inner wisdom. This helps you move in the direction of your potential. It can help you move beyond blocks and get in touch with your goals. Focusing is a gentle and powerful way to develop a deep interpersonal healing relationship with yourself.
In this workshop we will work with:
· artist's blocks
· money issues that we may have around our art
· time issues that we may have for our art making
· why we can’t get into the studio

What is Focusing?
Focusing is "direct access to bodily knowing." It is a practice that takes a person towards a state of conscious perception that goes far beyond knowing something on a mere conceptual level.

As with Somatic Experiencing, Focusing refers to this bodily knowing as a felt sense. As the Focusing Institute's website explains, "You can sense your living body directly under your thoughts and memories and under your familiar feelings." Focusing happens at a deeper level than your feelings. Under them you can discover a physically sensed murky zone which is concretely there. This is a source from which new steps emerge. This murky zone "opens" as you learn to stay with it longer. Being with it increases the ability to sense feelings behind words or images, even when those are not yet formed. Eventually, you can learn how to let a deeper bodily felt sense come in relation to any problem or situation. It is a subtle process, hard to define in words. Focusing was developed by the philosopher Eugene Gendlin in the late 1960s and early 70s, while he was working with the famed psychologist Carl Rogers.

ART THERAPY REFLECTIONS

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Therapeutic Thursday: Talking about being Present

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