Do you believe in the transformative abilities of art? Do you subscribe to the idea that creation is therapeutic? Then being a facilitator of an expressive arts program can be your destiny. This is a blog about what expressive arts facilitation entails, why one would want to take that path, the duties involved, how to sign up for training and certifications etc. Are you prepared for a highly inspiring and development-oriented voyage of discovering your inner self? Let’s dive in!
Who is a professional expressive arts facilitator?
Expressive Arts Facilitator is an experienced individual who utilizes different kinds of arts to assist individual or group while exploring their feelings, ideas, and experience. Expressive arts facilitate differed from the conventional one, in a way that it used different forms like drawing, music, and so forth other than verbal communication.
Fundamentally, the process involves acknowledging the fact that creating itself is a therapy. With an expressive arts facilitator, participants are able to freely interact with their bodies through artistic activities such as singing or dancing minus fear of being judged on quality or having a masterpiece to make.
These facilitators allow participants to access inner sources of wisdom hence making it possible for people to gain a comprehensive understanding of their personal needs and motives. They serve as co-travelers as the individuals go through the emotional terrain of expressing themselves artistically. An Expressive Arts Facilitator does not teach specific skills and techniques, but rather supports transformational journey of personal search.
Facilitators provide a personalized growth experience by using various art modalities that are best suited to every person/group. This flexibility gives them the ability to adjust their techniques and make them suitable for child development, people with learning disabilities, or those adults that focus on self-improvement.
Learn to guide expressive arts facilitator training online — it’s creativity at your fingertips.
Advantages of becoming an expressive arts facilitator.
It is more than just getting to become an expressive arts facilitators but rather more to it. Therefore, as a facilitator, you get a chance to change people’s lives. You facilitate emotional explorations through creative modalities such as paintings, music, movements, and writings that people did not have earlier in life.
This is a process that is fulfilling because it involves being able to guide other people in their artistic explorations. The growth and discovery of self among your participants is surely rewarding to watch. It also opens possibilities for further learning and self-growth.
Besides, the role of an expressive arts facilitator can be a stepping stone for promotion. The need for therapists skilled in facilitating creative expression has increased in schools, clinics, recreation centers, and other places.
acting as an expressive arts facilitator is not only rewarding because one is able to make a positive change in somebody else’s life, but also contributes to professional growth and job satisfaction. Helping people find their voices and letting your creativity blossom – an honor!
The role and responsibilities of an expressive arts facilitator.
An expressive arts facilitator creates a nurturing environment that encourages people to discover their talents and feelings in different creative activities. Their task is to lead people in the use of various artistic tools including painting, drawing, writing, movement, and music towards authentic self-expression.
It is the role of an expressive art facilitator to nurture expressionism and individual development. These enable people to explore hidden emotions and thoughts through a formulated idea/concept. In this way, they enable participants to realize additional meaning in themselves whilst grasping the nature of their existences.
As an expressive arts facilitator, another essential consideration that must not be overlooked is that everyone should feel respected as well as accepted regardless of their race, culture, religion, and gender in a judgment free environment. The facilitation should be done by encouraging active listening with no biased judgement or scrutiny. This helps people to open up and self-express without feeling judged. This fosters trust between members of the group, and enables them to effectively share.
The expressive arts facilitator should also have excellent relationship abilities. This entails the capacity for them to communicate efficiently with heterogenous persons, while having the right respect for everyone’s personal requirements and limits. Trust is important, and this can be established by building a relationship with the participants which then enables one to explore more through the artistic process.
Additionally, it entails promoting group dynamics during workshops and sessions. In this case, facilitator can organize talks on art work produced and talk on the participant’s experiences. It creates a good sense of togetherness as group members share different point of views enabling learning in the process.
Compassion, good listening capacities and great creative intuition are some of the traits a facillator should have.
Training and certification programs for expressive arts facilitators.
The training and certification program is imperative in offering relevant skills and information that can make one excel as an Expressive Arts Facilitator. Such programs have structured curricula, which provide theoretical and practical background to understand the learning process.
An example of such program is the Expressive Arts Facilitator Certification from many credible establishments. Such a program usually consists of psychology, psychotherapy skills, creative self-expression, and ethics courses. The workshops and group activities allow participants for another method of experiential learning.
The programs ensure that participants have their basics right in expressive arts practices besides nurturing them on personal growth and self-realization. Trainees learn how to support others through their creative process by discovering more about their own creative process.
Certification programs commonly highlight moral consideration while dealing with people of varying backgrounds. The training on cultural sensitivity, inclusiveness, and how to facilitate safe space should be crucial so that trainees can understand how they can help others open up without any constraints.
Moreover, such trainings offer an opportunity for individuals from various backgrounds to work together thus fostering cohesion. As such, it creates a network or a support community in which one shares its ideas, communicates their feelings as well as connects with other people.
Through taking part in full training and certifying program aimed at trained expressive arts facilitator, an individual becomes competent to walk with other people on road towards their self discovering journey and also healing process.
Certified expressive arts facilitators success stories and testimonials.
Therefore, the authentic indicator or assessment of successfulness of any training program relies on what the graduates have experienced as well as their achievements. For instance, if one becomes a trained expressive arts facilitator, there are plenty of inspirational narratives indicating how this can be quite life-changing.
Those who have undergone expressive arts facilitator training have been instrumental in the upliftment of the societies they exist within. They have seen for themselves that art can promote healing, growth and self-articulation. In terms of survivors of trauma and child care, creatives enable facilitators for this world through creative exploration.
A graduate student also reported how she helped women victimized by domestic violence through the use of expressive arts. She provided these women with an environment of creative expression through which they were able to reclaim their voices and inner power of strength.
In addition, a successful facilitator narrated her experience of using expressive arts’ technique for helping teenagers with anxiety and low self confidence. She discovered that by prompting them to express themselves using arts making mechanisms such as painting or even improvisational acting exercises, there was a notable change in their confidence levels and general health.
The two stories above exemplify the enormous power of a facilitator in expressive arts therapy. Nothing can adequately describe the personal satisfaction attained by witnessing such positive transformations unravel.
Besides, there is an increasing need for qualified specialists within these boundaries since many people realize the significance of creative implementation into therapeutics. There exists numerous avenues for persons intending to pursue careers in these areas ranging from schools, community centers, hospitals and private practice.
And, if you believe that you are supposed to use artistic expression and create relationships in order to help people change, why not follow this path!
