What is Expressive Therapy?
about us
Expressive therapies engage the mind, body, and spirit in ways that are distinct from verbal expression alone. At Indigo Art Therapy Studio, our credentialed expressive arts therapists integrate therapeutic tools and modalities with creative practices that include art making, dance, mindfulness, yoga, and somatic techniques to support healing and wellness.
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Art Therapy
Art Therapy is an integrative mental health and human services profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship. Art Therapy, facilitated by a professional art therapist, effectively supports personal and relational treatment goals as well as community concerns. Art Therapy is used to improve cognitive and sensory-motor functions, foster self-esteem and self-awareness, cultivate emotional resilience, promote insight, enhance social skills, reduce and resolve conflicts and distress, and advance societal and ecological change.
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Dance/Movement Therapy
Dance/Movement Therapy is the therapeutic use of physical movement and psycho-somatic awareness to support the mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, and social integration of the individual. Dance/Movement therapy is a holistic approach to healing, maintaining that all parts of the self are interconnected, reflecting and responding to one another: Changes in the physical body reflect changes in the psyche, and vice versa. While becoming a formal treatment option relatively recently in the 1940s, dance and movement have been used as modes of healing and connection for thousands of years in cultures across the globe. Dance/Movement Therapy supports us in connecting with the self and others by tapping into the wealth of knowledge that the physical body holds, and creating a sense of safety in the body.