There is a widespread myth that healing is simply about "getting it out of your system." We have seen it in classic Hollywood movies and heard it in advertisements for various therapy courses and techniques. This concept of getting it out—of catharsis—actually dates back to ancient Greece and was later revived by Sigmund Freud at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Many believe that if you just paint your trauma onto a canvas, cry it out in a dance and truly mean it—or intensely pound a lump of clay—you will rid yourself of the trauma, and the pain will release its grip. But as a licensed psychologist, expressive arts therapist, and practitioner for over 30 years, I must say: expressing a trauma is not the same as healing it. In fact, unregulated creative expression can make matters worse.
I have seen this many times in my practice. Clients come to me after trying to "release" a trauma by burning their inner critic, undergoing painful and intense somatic bodywork, or jumping up and down while hyperventilating. That was actually how I started my own therapeutic career more than three decades ago—I personally needed grounded and knowledgeable help after doing some wild "spiritual" and physical things in an attempt to feel better.
When a person lives with trauma, which in its chronic form is known as PTSD, complex PTSD (C-PTSD), or the long-term effects of developmental betrayal, the nervous system becomes stuck in a chronic state of alarm. The trauma is not just a bad memory in the mind; it is a biological overwhelm locked inside the body as fight, flight, freeze, or collapse.
If you sit down in that state and attempt to express the pain directly through expressive arts without the proper understanding and framework, you risk experiencing what we call re-traumatization. You open the floodgates to a level of pain that your nervous system does not yet have the capacity to contain. Instead of release, your body re-experiences the shock here and now—your heart races, or you become exhausted, sad, and dissociated, leaving you in a state of renewed helplessness. This is not healing; it is merely a re-activation of the original shock.
That's why simply expressing trauma creatively is not enough. Creative expression must always be mindfully woven together with what we call neuroaffective regulation.
In my method, Creative Mindfulness, expressive arts therapy differs fundamentally from more traditional, free-form art therapy. We never dive straight into the darkness. We always begin with your strengths and your safety. Before we even touch the materials with the intention of looking at the difficult pieces, we establish and anchor your internal resources. We uncover your inherent strength and make it palpable in your body and visible on the paper. You must have a safe and solid foundation to stand on before you even look toward what hurts.
For some, finding any sense of safety at the beginning is incredibly difficult, but here we can also use role-play, painting, and other creative shifts to discover it, giving your system a brand-new experience to build upon.
When we eventually invite the difficult material onto the paper or into a dance, it happens at a steadier and more predictable pace, with me present as your support and your witness. We use colors, shapes, or clay to create an aesthetic distance. For a moment, the trauma energy "moves" out of your body and onto the canvas or into a figure in front of us. This means that together, we can examine it as a "third entity in the room"—without your nervous system becoming flooded.
Healing does not occur by re-living the pain, but by being allowed to express it within a framework where your body simultaneously feels safe and where you can remain fully present. In this way, the survival charge in your nervous system is gradually reduced while you let go of the paralyzing overwhelm. This is where you truly begin to write a brand-new narrative about yourself and your life.
If you have tried talking, drawing, jumping, or screaming your way out of your traumas without finding peace, and you feel the need for a trauma-sensitive, holistic psychologist to guide you safely through, you are warmly welcome to read more about working with me here or reach out for a brief free initial chat to find out if coming to therapy with me might be a good fit for you:
Comments