
Art for Healing
Julie Cunningham
What is Transpersonal Art Therapy? (TAT)
"Trans" is from the Latin meaning “across,” “beyond,” “through” and while we meet each person as a unique individual, the transpersonal aspect refers to working with creative processes, symbols (both collective in the culture and personal, unique to you) , story (from the collective or those personal to you), dreams, visualisations, meditation, activating sensing and feeling states and also designed events, in order to activate self realisation and healing.
As Carl Jung showed, an individual's unconscious gathers imagery from the "collective unconscious". While we may be holding repressed events below our awareness, our unconscious can a great source of creativity, healing and visioning; it is the ground of the imagination. Transpersonal processes are not about "fixing" you, but about journeying with you to activate the body/mind's natural healing mechanisms through developing self awareness, self direction, resilience and your potential.
My experience is we are not alone in this work but when we seek the greater truth of who we are, that the creative life force, the source of all, responds to our initiatives.