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Dr Eric Miller's Inaugural Address on 16 Feb 2017 at the Annual International Expressive Arts Therapy Conference at Women's Christian College,
Chennai Inaugural Address It is my
great honor and pleasure to help inaugurate this International Conference on
Expressive Arts Therapy, presented by the Dept of Psychology of Women’s
Christian College, and the East West Center for Counselling and Training. This
Conference celebrates the completion of the fifth year, and the beginning of
the sixth year, of the Diploma Program
in Expressive Arts Therapy that is jointly offered by this same team. The Diploma Program has successfully
trained five batches of students who are now practicing across India and in
the world beyond. It has been a
gratifying and exciting journey as we have discovered the power and depth of
the Expressive Therapies, This
Conference has been designed to bring together professionals in the field of
Expressive Therapies, to enable the building of networks, the forging of
personal and professional bonds, and the mutual sharing of insights. It is
hoped that this Conference might occur annually, and that this year and in
the years to come, therapists and researchers might present strong and
convincing evidence regarding the uniqueness and effectiveness of the
Expressive Therapies in India, and that students of the helping professions
might be inspired to specialise in this field. The
Expressive Arts seem to flow naturally out of the many rich cultural
practices of India. Traditional Indian culture features the multi-modal use
of the arts and the senses in various kinds of performances and rituals, such
as pujas and dance-dramas. In many cases
the arts were not compartmentalised in India the way they were in the West. Some of the founders of Expressive Arts
Therapy (in the 1970s) may have been inspired by the cultures of India, and
of Asia in general, in regard to multi-modality. In India,
the Expressive Therapies have precedents in ancient folk activities. Drawing kolams on the ground with powdered
chalk could be seen as an ancient version of Visual Art Therapy. Telling Grandmother stories to give comfort
and guidance could be seen as an ancient version of Storytelling Therapy. In India,
some of these traditional activities developed in devotional, ritual, and/or
meditational contexts -- whereas the secular field of Psychology is based on
the notion of an unconscious, and of exploring one's unconscious for
therapeutic purposes. It is going to
be very interesting to see the ways in which the approaches of Western
Psychology, and of traditional Indian culture, interact with and influence
each other as the Expressive Arts and Therapies develop here in India. To define
some terms: “Expressive Arts Therapy” is the
Expressive Therapy that holistically uses any of the arts in combination. Just as a General Physician has expertise
relating to the human body as a whole, so an Expressive Arts Therapist is a
generalist regarding the therapeutic uses of any of the Expressive Arts. Each of
the “Expressive Therapies” uses a
specific modality, or set of modalities, of art. The Expressive Therapies include Music
Therapy, Drama Therapy, Storytelling Therapy, Visual Art Therapy,
Dance-movement Therapy, and Expressive Arts Therapy. The term,
“Expressive Arts,” refers to the
specific modalities of artistic expression: Music, Drama, Visual Art, and so
on. Each of the Expressive Arts can,
of course, also be used in non-clinical settings such as training, coaching,
teaching, and artistic expression: for exploration, improvement, development,
and actualisation of one’s self, as well as for aesthetic pleasure and
satisfaction, and just plain play and fun. The word,
“Expressive,” in the
above-mentioned terms refers to the idea that the artistic activity is
engaged in by the client for the sake of the
process of expressing, not for the sake of producing a polished and
finished work of art. In
conclusion: The days when students in
India needed to go to places such as London to the west, or Singapore to the
east, to study Expressive Arts Therapy, are over. With the inauguration of this annual
Festival -- which would include the inauguration of the Indian Association of
Expressive Arts Therapists this afternoon -- and with the
continuation and development of the Diploma
Course in Expressive Arts Therapy, a new era has begun in India. In this new era, India would take an active
role in developing its own unique versions of Expressive Arts Therapy and the
other Expressive Therapies, and would contribute these unique versions to the
global conversation about using the arts for healing and therapy.
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