The images hidden in the unconscious are not always easy to detect and even more so to describe in words. But contact with the world of deep experiences, which is necessary for our well-being, can be established without the help of words, experts say.
Attempts to reach out to the unconscious and enter into a dialogue with it are considered the prerogative of psychoanalysts. But it is not so. There are many psychotherapeutic methods that address the unconscious in other ways. Where there are not enough words, images, movements, music come to the rescue — which often lead to the depths of the psyche in a shorter way.
Ọgwụ nkà
Akụkọ. The method originated in the 1940s, and Natalie Rogers, the daughter of psychologist Carl Rogers, is best known among its creators. Natalie helped her father run the group sessions. And I noticed that the participants get tired of sitting, talking and listening for many hours. She suggested using drawing, music, movement — and gradually created her own direction.
Isi nke usoro. In English, there are two terms: art therapy (visual arts therapy, actually art therapy) and arts therapy (therapy with all kinds of arts in general). But there is another direction that is gaining strength, which arose in the 1970s and is called expressive arts therapy in English. In Russian we call it “intermodal therapy with expressive arts”. Such therapy uses different types of arts in one therapeutic session. It can be drawing, and movement, and music — a synthesis of all these types.
The therapist must be very sensitive to know when to move from one art form to another. When you can draw something, when you can express it with music or words. This expands the range of influence, allowing unconscious processes to unfold. There are signs, signals that you need to navigate by, offering the client to move to another modality.
Poetry, for example, is a good tool to emphasize the most important of what is important. We use free writing when the client can spontaneously write for 10 minutes. And then what to do with this material? We suggest that the client underline, say, five words — and create a haiku from them. So from the material received in spontaneous writing, we highlight the important and express it with the help of poetry.
Uru. A client may attend expressive arts therapy sessions without being able to draw, sculpt, or write poetry. There are techniques to help remove the complex of inability and fear of expressing yourself in this way. For example, you can draw with your left hand. Fears immediately pass — almost no one knows how to draw with their left hand.
An important advantage of art therapy and intermodal art therapy, I consider their safety. The work is going on at the symbolic level, with images. By changing the image, drawing, we change something in ourselves. And understanding will come at the right moment, which should not be rushed.
For whom and for how long. Art therapy works with loss, trauma, relationships and their crises. All this can be drawn, molded, haiku can be created from everything — and transformed in the process of creativity. The session lasts an hour and a half, the course of therapy — from five sessions (short-term therapy) to 2-3 years.
There are some restrictions. I used to work in a psychiatric clinic, and I know that it is difficult to use art methods with people in difficult conditions. Although they managed to achieve results with them. I remember a 19-year-old girl with a developmental delay (she remained at the level of a 5-year-old). In her drawings, among the incoherent doodles, at some point a bear and a fox suddenly appeared. I asked: who is this? She said that the fox looked like her mother, and the bear looked like her. «And what does the fox say to the bear?» — «The fox says:» Do not grow.
Sand therapy (sandplay)
History and essence of the method. The method originated in the middle of the twentieth century. Its author is Dora Kalff, a student of Carl Gustav Jung. In its current form, sand therapy consists of two wooden trays 50 cm by 70 cm with wet and dry sand and figurines that depict people, animals, houses, fairy-tale characters, and natural phenomena.
The method is based on the idea of Jungian analysis about the restoration of a dialogue between consciousness and the unconscious in the free and protected space of therapy. Sandplay helps to “pick up our own parts” — what we know little about ourselves or do not know at all as a result of repression and trauma.
Dora Kalff believes that sandplay contributes to the activation of our Self — the center of the psyche, around which integration takes place, leading to the integrity of the personality. In addition, such a «game» stimulates regression, helps through the game to turn to the childish part of our «I». It was in her that Jung saw the hidden resources of the psyche and the possibilities for its renewal.
Uru. Sandplay is a natural and understandable method, because we all played in the sandbox as children, and then with sand on the beaches. All associations with sand are pleasant, so the method causes less resistance. During the creation of paintings, we do not discuss or interpret them. It is important for us to start the process so that the pictures succeed each other. At the end of the work, the client and I can discuss a series of his paintings, photos of which I save after each session.
With the help of figurines in the space of the sandbox, the boy said goodbye to his father and began to return to normal life.
If we talk about efficiency, then here is a recent example. I ended up working with a 10 year old boy. His father tragically passed away. The boy was very upset by the loss, was constantly ill, began to withdraw into himself, stopped talking. During the lessons, he hid under the desk — he behaved like a child with autism, although he does not have such a diagnosis.
In the first sessions, he averted his eyes, did not want to make contact. I said: “Okay, I see that you do not want to talk, I will not pester you. But we can play.» And he began to build pictures in the sand. He was glad of this opportunity and created amazing paintings. They could see the world where he was, where the family was before the tragedy. But he traveled there, and his father always appeared next to him.
He went through a difficult path, with the help of figurines in the space of the sandbox, he said goodbye to his father, the world of the living and the dead were divided, the boy began to return to normal life. I was there, supported, tried to feel his condition through the pictures. Gradually, he began to trust me, the moment came when he spoke to me for the first time, when he smiled. We worked for more than a year, and sand played a big role in this work.
For whom and for how long. If there are no contraindications to therapy in general, then this method can be used. The session lasts 50 minutes. There is a short-term therapy aimed at the consequences of negative events. And there is, for example, complex and lengthy work with neuroses. For some, a few months is enough, while others go for 5 years.
To say that we are changing the unconscious in this work, I would not dare. Usually it does change us. But we invite him to dialogue. We explore ourselves, our inner spaces, we get to know ourselves better. And become healthier mentally.
Dance movement therapy
Akụkọ. Talking about dance-movement therapy, you need to start with the psychotherapist Alexander Lowen, the creator of bioenergetics. He argued: clamps in the body are formed from childhood as a reaction to psychological influences. The mother yelled at the child: «Don’t you dare cry!» He holds back, and there is a constriction in his throat. A man is urged to endure, not to show feelings — there is a clamp in the region of the heart. Therefore, heart attacks are more common in men than in women.
Isi nke usoro. In dance, the unconscious manifests itself with the help of images and bodily sensations. Someone is dominated by bodily sensations when he dances, and someone dances visual images. We learn to listen to the body, follow its impulses. We don’t have to put our experiences into words. With the help of dance, you can work through any emotion. For example, a breakup.
Each person has the experience of parting, the loss of loved ones — and this experience lives in the body too. We carry this pain with us for many years. And it’s hard to talk about it. And work with the body helps to find this pain — and overcome it.
Often we get stuck at the stage of aggression, blaming the one with whom we broke up or whom we lost, blaming ourselves or the whole world for injustice. Usually people don’t realize it. And the dance plunges into this painful situation, and the body gives rise to anger, aggression. Clients often admit that at this moment they want to tear something with their hands, stomp their feet. This is where spontaneity is important.
Speaking is a prerequisite for dance-movement therapy. But the main therapeutic effect is not given by words, but by movements.
Dance-movement therapy is more often attended by those who have a memorized set of movements in their heads. Gradually, they open up, begin to make movements that have long been forgotten. Under the influence of psychological causes — suffering, depression, stress — many stoop, lower their shoulders and head, literally bend under the weight of problems, and in therapy we give relaxation to the whole body. The work is done in a group, and this is an important part of therapy. We have, for example, an exercise where participants pair up and each dances for a partner.
The attention of another person is a serious factor that changes the dance, the movements. And at the end we do a thank you dance. We do not say a word, we express our gratitude to other members of the group with our eyes, gestures, movement. And during this dance, almost always cry! After the dance, we discuss what everyone has experienced and felt. Speaking is a prerequisite for dance-movement therapy. But the main therapeutic effect is not given by words, but by movements.
For whom and for how long. The usual course is 8-10 meetings once a week. One lesson lasts 3-4 hours. Age is absolutely unimportant, sometimes girls come to dance with babies, there was even a separate group for them. And of course, it is useful for older people. They always leave in a good mood. Men in groups, unfortunately, can be counted on the fingers. Although the effectiveness of the method for men and women is the same.