Existential Art Therapy, what is life?

6 Key Concepts

The World of

Existentialism

1. Capacity for SELF-AWARENESS

2. FREEDOM & Responsibility

3. Striving for IDENTITY & a relationship with others

4. The search for MEANING in life

5. ANXIETY as a condition for living

6. Awareness of DEATH & non-existence

Authentic

Therapeutic Relationship

What is

Existentialism?

1. Help client become more PRESENT

to self & others

2. Assist clients in identifying ways they

BLOCK themselves from living fully

3. ENCOURAGE clients to choose

more expanded ways of being in

their daily lives.

philosophy + psychology

*Challenging individuals to find

meaning and purpose in their EXISTENCE

through suffering, work and love to

understand our inevitable reality

Emphasis

Development of personal direction

in life by respecting our:

The

HUMANISTIC

connection:

*Self-Awareness

*Choices

*Responsibility

* Capacity for Free-Will

* Self-Awareness focus

* Here & Now

* Capacity for Self-Healing

* Holistic

Key Figures

Freedom

Sartre

Nietzche

Frankl

Relationships

Binswanger

Buber

May

Boss

Other

Yalom

Kierkegaard

Heidegger

Process

Create script of the dream

Create artwork of the dream image

Discuss manifest content of dream

Identify "Horizons"

Finished

Develop "Existential Concerns"

Identify course of action in response to the dream

Existential Themes

Article Themes

Existentialism is a healthy approach to confronting trauma in therapy because the emphasis on the "extremes" in life.

•Bruce Moon created a formulaic way to use art and existential ideas to deal with dreams

•Frankl - only the individual can discover and create meaning for their life and meaning can only be found in the context of the relationship with others

o Moon used this premise when he developed a way to use art therapy for discussing dreams.

•Premises shown in article

o Self-awareness

o Responsibility

o Search for meaning, understanding meaning through relationships

4 Common

Defense Mechanisms

when confronting trauma

Clients Experienced

1. Overwhelming Anxiety

2. Depression

3. Low Self-Esteem

4. Emptiness/Loneliness

Dialoguing In Dreams

Existential

Themes

1. Aggression

2. Avoidance

3. Dependency

4. Splitting

due to their trauma

1. Discussions of death

2. Sitting with the trauma

3. Finding meaning from the life struggle

Play & Art In

Existential Trauma Therapy With Children And Their Parents

Existentialism

Key Elements

4 Treatment Elements

Telling

Holding

Mastering

Honoring

Relationships help us bring the unconscious to conscious awareness.

People find ways to process and master the pain.

Disclosing the story of what happened allows for the internal experience to be externalized.

*Sharing leads to the ability to be supported and helped.

leads to gaining awareness of identifying and making use of "potentials" in creating

new meaning

•Dreams are a compelling source of wisdom. “they have something to say, something to teach; they want something from us, and they want us to pay attention”

• In the context of existential therapy the therapist attends to the client by doing with, being open to, and honoring the dreamer’s struggles

•All interpretations are made by the client, the therapist is there to help facilitate discussion

•Moon’s approach begins with the client making art that shows the dream or a part of the dream and then phenomenologically looking at the artwork

•Hearing the therapist discuss the dream repeat what the client says allows the client to hear their dream in another voice and from another perspective.

&

Art Therapy

inevitable

THE

END

What is the purpose of this thing we call life?