Posts Tagged ‘Expressive Art’

A traumatic birth can be physically and emotionally devastating. Social support for those going through trauma treatment and for long-term survivors of trauma can improve quality of life, reducing anger, anxiety and depression.

Expressive Art: Creating Your Lifeline

The expressive art exercise called LifeLine is a positive tool in the therapy room. Getting an overview of your life can be a first step step towards self understanding and self acceptance.

David came in to see me because he had experienced a panic attack at work. The intensity of the physical and emotional feelings scared him.

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Does Oprah’s Daily Gratitude Journal Really Work?

Let’s take a look at this idea of gratitude.  Gratitude can bring you perspective.  Cultivating an underlying foundation of gratitude can move you from negative energy to more positive energy. Focusing on the good aspects of your life can bring you contentment, while focusing on the negative aspects of your life can fell really bad.  Oprah says daily gratitude journaling changed her life.

Hmm..but being grateful all the time isn’t easy. Sometimes it’s easier to get caught up in a swirl of emotion. We’re all human and can be hijacked by our limbic systems! When someone is actively aggressive towards you, such as working to take your job or if you are physically attacked, it’s not easy to process this anger and aggression away with gratitude. I don’t think it’s possible to for humans to always feel grateful.

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Dedicated to Jo, my mom

52 years ago my mom made my art space needlepoint chair (Photo: Kathy Morelli, LPC)

Footie, I am 6

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Clara had an accident about two years ago.  She had slipped on the ice in her driveway,  fallen and as a result, gotten a concussion. She then struggled with post-concussion syndrome, enduring neck pain, headaches and awful vertigo spells. She took lots of time and effort in going to multiple doctors trying to get help, including a neurologist.

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I use my Vision Board process to move myself away from magical thinking.  I don’t believe if you think it, it’s will be so. Envisioning followed by long periods of hard work and persistence is what propels me towards my goals.

Yes, I love setting intention and using visualization, but I use a Vision Board to move me away from intentions and towards concrete steps on my yearly plan.  The Vision Board process helps me clarify what I want to work on in the coming year, what there is room for, and then I pair this process to a plan in my calendar.

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Expressive Art – A Mindbody Practice

Using mandalas as a healing expressive art form is a merging of Eastern and Western practices and thought. “Mandala” is Sanskrit for “circle” and is a spiritual symbol used ritualistically to represent universal wholeness. It is used a focal point in meditative practice. In Western practice, the mandala has been adopted as a tool for healing and self-discovery. The endless interlocking patterns can be envisioned as a pattern of different connected levels of the spirit, self and consciousness.

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This article originally appeared in Postpartum Progress.

Cristi Motto Comes of Motherhood Unadorned are over at Postpartum Progress today talking about past sexual abuse and how it can affect the emotions of pregnancy, birth and postpartum.  

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Last week, Glee indirectly broke the Fourth Wall when they portrayed family and friends grieving Finn. Of course, we all know Finn is Cory Monteith’s alter ego on the show. The cast grieves for both Cory and Finn. And of course, we all know cast members Lea Michele and Cory Monteith were devoted to each other.

Grief Manifests Differently for Different People

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Photo:Kathy Morelli, LPC

Creating with your hands is a wonderful way to enter into the experience of the essential flow state. To be fully immersed in flow state is to be so absorbed in your task that you lose self-consciousness, your emotions are positively engaged and and you experience deep satisfaction. Developing a hobby is a good way to define a sense of self around positive experiences, outside of depression, postpartum depression and anxiety.

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