[LAUIL601] Secondary Research: Expressive Arts Therapy and Trauma: Movement, Sound, Image, Performance with Cathy Malchiodi, PhD

https://youtu.be/SutB72QBvZs

Video posted on 23rd September 2020

• Four core healing processes: movement, sound, storytelling through image and silence through contemplative and self-regulatory practices. 
• To restore the self
• Very relevant right now with the pandemic and with social unrest but also around the world. People are using the arts to address this.
• Geneva has one of the oldest Expressive Arts Therapy programs in the world
• Expressive Arts Therapy is the purposeful use of movement, music, image-making, performance, play, writing and imagination in healthcare, psychotherapy and wellness that communities may engage in. Very diverse in where it's practiced which includes education. 
• Neuroscience has taught us that we need to 'come to our senses' through developing effective components for addressing trauma.
• In expressive arts therapy, the senses, capitalising on all of the arts, can be a starting point for trauma repair and recovery.
• And because of neuroscience, we now know why this approach is fundamental to address trauma in individuals and communities of all ages.
• Over the past 10-15 years we have seen proof that talking about our trauma is simply not enough to fully recover and that we need to use the senses. The arts are all about the senses including visual, hearing, tactile.
• Art therapy isn't just for children and is for all ages.
• Another thread of evidence alongside neuroscience is that cultures have regulated themselves throughout time, throughout thousands of years, using these kinds of artistic rituals, conventions, procedures and ceremonies to respond directly to trauma and loss. Evidence is not just in the brain. Many studies now show how things work through neuroscience and neurobiology but our main evidence is cultural anthropology and ethnology. Humans have always used these practices to return to psychological, psychical and social equilibrium. 
• Cathy's personal research is how these categories fall. There's visual art, music, drama, dance, these things overlap sometimes into universal healing practices throughout time. 
• Movement - cultural practices of dancing, yoga, chanting, energy arts such as tai chi, cultural practices such as hula and sundance. Experiences that involve soothing repetition, have familiarity, and connect people to each other.
• Common art experiences such as music, drumming, singing, and chanting are effective in trauma repair and recovery.
• Contemporary example shows a video of a crowd of people in response to the death of George Floyd advocating against police brutality; chanting and drumming, moving snd clapping. Cultural practice to honour an individual and to be active.
• Sound. Music is the only art form that uses and activates the entire brain. Remedy for trauma as it can lift you out of depression. It enlivens you, it brings back memories, and it's a powerful pain reducer. 
• Singing, humming, drumming, listening, playing instruments, vibration and chanting/prayer.
• Storytelling. Research tells us that that image-making is a powerful cognitive experience, stimulating and enhancing memory. It also helps those most traumatised to be able to tell their stories. In fact, creating a drawing helps to stimulate 2 to 3 times more language than talking alone.
• Kadir Nelson for the New Yorker cover - George Floyd. Imagery is a powerful and popular way to tell stories. 
• Silence. Mindfulness, meditation, contemplation, art making in silence, yoga, witnessing the arts perhaps at an art gallery or museum, theatre or performance. 
• Expressive arts are a natural relaxant for the body's nervous system (trauma and every day stress). 
• Reduce cortisol, lower blood pressure, regulate heart rate, decrease pain perception.
• Bring us into healthy synchrony with ourselves and others and can even and entrain us to the same heart rhythm.
• When people are looking for a trauma remedy, the biggest evidence has come from people themselves. When given a choice of "treatments," patients repeatedly chose these forms of self expression because they cite improvement of their quality of life and sense of well-being. This is probably the most powerful evidence of all.

Reflection: 

This links to my work quite heavily. I listen to music while I'm working (I now know from my research that music is the only art form to use the entire brain) and I also feel like I'm moving. I'm swaying while I'm working and reacting to the song, then interpreting my experiences into the canvas. Writing through haikus, poetry and deep thought and combining these things into my practice to unpick my trauma and move forward. The repetition brings a sense of harmony and relaxation. All of this will be incredibly useful for my essay.