Written by Bridget Bertrand, LMFT
You might have been using talk therapy for ten sessions or upwards of twenty. There is power in talk therapy, yet the somatic invitation with art, music, poetry, and writing that you share with your expressive arts therapist has the power to illuminate parts of your subconscious you hadn’t been aware of.
Expressive arts therapy can include small movements as you sit in the therapy space (virtual or in-person). You might draw some scribbles and then look back at them later, and suddenly the tears flow. This is the power of expressive arts therapy—a therapeutic approach that recognizes what indigenous cultures and ancient wisdom traditions have always known: creativity and healing are intimately connected. When words fail us, when trauma lives in the body beyond the reach of rational thought, art becomes a bridge between our inner world and our capacity for transformation.
Beyond words: The neuroscience of creative healing
Traditional psychotherapy relies heavily on verbal processing, but trauma often bypasses the brain’s language centers entirely. When we experience overwhelming events, memories can become trapped.
As one of my favorite therapists, Prentis Hemphill, explains:
"The way that I hold practice with the word embodiment is that it points us to this reality that our bodies and our lives are much more than we get told in this current moment—that our bodies are much wilder and more wise than we are trained to know them. And the experience of being in or being a body actually connects us up to all living beings and all life here."
Read more: adrienne maree brown and Prentis Hemphill On Restoring Our Rhythm | Atmos
These fragmented memories, stored in our nervous system rather than our narrative understanding, can be extraordinarily difficult to access through talk therapy alone. Expressive arts therapy works differently. Drawing, painting, movement, music, and creative writing engage multiple regions of the brain simultaneously, including areas responsible for sensory processing, emotional regulation, and memory integration. This multi-layered approach can help unlock traumatic material that remains inaccessible to verbal processing, allowing it to be witnessed, expressed, and ultimately integrated into a coherent sense of self.
In a world that often rushes toward quick fixes and simple solutions, expressive arts therapy offers something more profound: an invitation to slow down, to feel deeply, and to trust in the inherent wisdom of our creative spirits. For those carrying old wounds, it provides not just a path toward healing, but a way of being in the world that honors both vulnerability and resilience, both suffering and the endless human capacity for renewal.
Schedule a complimentary first meeting with Ari Neubauer, AMFT, to explore expressive arts therapy today.
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The feelings of low motivation and low energy that define depression make it especially hard to take care of yourself and pull yourself out of a slump.
