Expressive Body in Life, Art and Therapy

Drawing on her extensive experience in expressive arts therapy, Daria Halprin presents a unique approach to healing through movement and art. She describes the body as the container of one's entire life experience and movement as a language that expresses and reveals our deepest struggles and creative potentials. Interweaving artistic and psychological processes, she offers a philosophy and methodology that invites the reader to consider the transformational capacity of the arts. In this essential resource for anyone interested in the integration of psychotherapy and the arts, Halprin also presents case studies and a selection of exercises that she has evolved over her career and practised at the Tamalpa Institute for over twenty-five years.

Foreword (Jack Weller). Preface. Acknowledgments. Part One: Introduction. 1. Movement as Metaphor. 2. How I got Here. Part Two: Roots and Cross-Pollination. 3. Historical Context. 4. Psychology. 5. Somatic Psychology. 6. Dance. 7. Modernism, Postmodernism, and the Avant Garde. Part Three: The Practice. 8. Creativity, Art, and Therapy. 9. Maps and Methods of the Practice. 10. Body Part Metaphors. 11. Living Artfully with the Wounded Self. 12. Case Studies. Part Four: Conclusion. 13. Art as a Healing Force in the World. References. Index.