In a high school, far away from the continent of America, an art teacher asked the class: “Who wants to be an artist after graduating?”
One student raised her hand.
The teacher looked at the hand then asked again:
“Why so few who want to choose freedom?”
Art classes are generally only for leisure and not given much importance. Art itself is mostly seen as entertainment. Artists are asked to present their work for little money.
Creative arts therapies have been slowly carving an important place in Western psychology, where analytical approaches and medical perspectives are dominant.
But prevailing left-brain, approach-focused therapy methods that emphasize the importance of analytical thinking often miss attending to sensory and bodily expressions.
Speaking the language of non-linear expression through dreams, symbols, metaphors, sounds, silence, movement, senses, colors that do not conform to logical order — beginning, middle and end — requires some getting used to.
Training in non-linear expression can be gained through artistic experiential work. Academic study is not enough to learn and apply the language of the arts. Just as we cannot learn how to sing or dance from a book, we can only learn about artistic expression by doing it.
Artistic expression deepens and accelerates connection with ourselves and the world around us. The freedom of expressing thoughts, sensations, emotions creatively, opens doors of expression not only as an individual but also as a spiritual being.
The Healing Power of Art
Communication through the arts opens a space through time, be it music, painting, movement, writing, or theater. Art contains personal material without judgment while offering the possibility of a healthy distance from it.
This distance allows us to establish an aesthetic relationship with our personal material. Almost like a painter, we can approach the material or chose to distance ourselves from it while still maintaining the ability to see the whole picture. This relationship is therapeutic.
When the intuitive, nonlinear freedom of expression meets the theoretical and scientific knowledge offered by psychology, the door to transformation is wide open. That’s why art adds enormous power to the field of psychology.
Hazal supports you throughout this process as a witness and as an artist. She collaborates with you in further developing your emerging personal material, supports your process of meaning-making, and incorporating the messages into your daily life. She guides you so that your artistic expression can raise awareness and offer its medicine.
In this work, you don’t need to be an artist. If there is an art form you would like to express yourself with, you can start working from there. Or you can choose to express yourself through a brand new art form that you have never tried.