Tag: Art Therapy

Kintsugi Inspired Workshop

Lisa Snook

Since writing my last post, I have been developing a series of workshops that draw from the philosophy of Kintsugi and invited friend and fellow art psychotherapist to help me run them.

Kintsugi is the ancient Japanese art of mending a broken piece of pottery with lacquered gold.  The tradition began as an aesthetically pleasing solution to mending a precious tea bowl in the 15th century.  Its philosophy however, is rooted in the idea that an object’s history becomes the very thing that makes the object more precious and by enhancing its ‘brokenness’, which becomes part of its ‘story’,  it becomes that much more beautiful. 

As I mentioned before, Peter Levine compared Kintsugi to how we might view someone who has been through any number of life’s challenges such as; trauma, bereavement or loss and see that person as more beautiful with the marks of their experience as visible signs of their life’s journey. 

How wonderful then to embrace our imperfections, our fragility, our tender hearts and celebrate these as part of our humanity, particularly in a time where culture not only encourages the opposite but rewards it. 

So the aim of these workshops are to bring a little bit of Kintsugi into your life.  

I will post dates, times and more details soon.

Refugees & War Trauma: A Day with Peter Levine

Lisa Snook

Last week I attended a day’s symposium with the trauma expert Peter Levine.  I have followed and admired Peter’s work for several years.  His theories on how the body holds trauma, how it can become trapped within viscera and muscles and lead to chronic pain, and mental health issues, have inspired me to explore further how listening to the body in psychotherapy, can offer insight and understanding to a persons experience.

Within this capacity, my aim is to slow things down in a session, to notice sensations, movements, small nuances that manifest in the body.  This is a first step in creating a closer, more respectful relationship with our bodies, so that we can be receptive to what it might be telling us.

Peter talked about the Japanese tradition of Wabi Sabi, the art of imperfection. He spoke about human beings as being more beautiful with wounds that have been healed, like the Japanese art of Kintsugi, which is that of repairing pottery with gold.

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I am looking to do a creative making workshop that incorporates this idea of repair and mending. I will post further details in the following weeks.

 

Creativity and Wellbeing Week in London from the 4th-10th June 2018

Lisa Snook

This looks like a really wonderful opportunity to see and experience how the creative arts and mental health combine.

I’ve just pulled a quote from the website, which describes beautifully the thinking behind how engagement with the arts both ignites our imaginations and confirms what we already know.

‘There is a growing body of evidence indicating the profound effect engagement in the arts and creativity can have on health and wellbeing. The arts bring us alive, nourish our curiosity, help us learn – they change the places in which we are treated – and make them places we might want to be, they can improve the relationship between clinician and patient, and they give us the courage to face our own frailties and strengths.’

Here is the link to their website where you can find details of the events.

http://www.creativityandwellbeing.org.uk

 

Lisa Snook

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‘When language goes, the body is still speaking.’  Cai Tomos.

As part of my practise, I pay attention to how the body moves, breathes and holds tension. The body is a powerful communicator of our emotions.  We are embodied beings and so I believe that our bodies, have much to tell us in the therapy room.

Western medicine tends to separate the body and mind but there is now much evidence and understanding in the field of body/mind symbiosis, that aims to re-connet us to our bodies, with an understanding that our emotions, our mental health, directly effects our physical one.

For further reading on this, I would recommend these titles-

The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel Van Der Kolk

The Body Remembers, by Babette Rothschild

In An Unspoken Voice, by Peter A. Levine

When The Body Says No, by Gabor Mate

Cai Tomos is both artist and art psychotherapist. Website – https://caitomos.com