Harmony Harbor Therapist Earns Certification Treating Trauma through the Creative Arts
Harmony Harbor Therapist Earns Certification Treating Trauma through the Creative Arts
Harmony Harbor Therapist Earns Certification Treating Trauma through the Creative Arts
by Kathleen Moye
One of our counselors, Kathleen Moye, recently completed new training, earning a certificate for using creative arts therapies for trauma treatment. Kathleen participated in four experiential training weekends with Kint Institute in New York City, learning about ways to help her clients restore their connections to themselves and others through the arts. This training program included intensive sessions with experts in Dance and Movement Therapy, Music Therapy, Art Therapy, Drama Therapy, and Poetry and Narrative Therapy as well as Trauma Treatment.
So what is Creative Arts Therapy and why does it help treat trauma?
We may not all think of ourselves as creative, but indeed, we create from the moment we are born through sound and movement in effort to express ourselves. We are improvising, by and large, each moment as we go, responding to others and taking in our environment along each step of the way. Each experience we’ve had leaves its imprint. Sometimes, the best way to access these memories isn’t through talk therapy or thinking about our problems, but rather through more embodied and expressive means.
A creative arts approach to trauma can help with:
Practicing mindfulness and coping skills. Trauma can rob a person of a sense of safety and they may struggle with regulating emotions and reactivity to their environment or other cues. Trauma can cause a sense of disconnection or inattention between what we think and what we feel. Use of art materials, movement, storytelling, and music can provide specific and fun ways to reconnect and reflect mindfully in the moment and cope with big emotions.
Mining fresh insights and understanding. Talking about and retelling stories of trauma can be difficult due to fractured memories, and challenges with emotional flooding in recall. Solutions and insight may indeed come out of a creative process or lead us to answers, in part because it can improve our ability to tolerate sharing those stories and sensations that have had such intense impacts on our lives.
Connecting with others. Because trauma sometimes occurs within relationships, it can negatively impact our ability to connect with others. Creative arts gives a person an alternative way to express and interact with others as well as their own pain. Sharing through the arts and telling our story to kind and compassionate others, gives us the chance of being with our rending experiences along with warmth and reparative social experiences that can help us heal.
Transforming how we see our trauma. An important part of healing from trauma involves finding ways to move through it and into the future. How a person conceptualizes their stories and the person they want to be can be deeply impacted by traumatic experiences. Through art expression, we find tools to edit, imagine, and enact new ways forward.
Ready to heal and reconnect through creative expression?
Creative Arts Therapy can help you:
- Regulate emotions and practice coping skills.
- Gain new insights and understanding about your experiences.
- Reconnect with yourself and others in meaningful ways.
- Transform how you view your trauma and envision your future.
Take the first step toward healing—schedule a session with Kathleen Moye, who now offers trauma treatment through Creative Arts Therapy. This approach combines mindfulness, art, movement, music, and storytelling to help you restore a sense of safety, connection, and self-expression.
Written by:
Teen & Adult Psychotherapist, Drama & Expressive Arts Therapist