Combined art and movement therapy group: Isomorphic responses

Abstract

As the creative arts therapies develop in a wide variety of clinical and educational settings, art therapists are given the opportunity to work closely with therapists trained in other expressive techniques. Having worked in professional isolation for many years, art therapists now have the chance to share their techniques and approaches with dance, music, drama, and poetry therapists. This writer has devised a format in which art and movement therapy join forces to reach a wide variety of populations with the combined power of two nonverbal modalities. This format was conceptualized in conjunction with Helen McKibben. a registered movement therapist. Traditionally, art therapy has been paired with music therapy: the structural qualities of the sound affect the structure of the graphic expression. Adding the kinesthetic dimension to the experience, energy levels and messages of the body may be expressed physically and then recorded graphically. The movement therapist explores nonverbal interactions and is able to clarify unconsciously transmitted feelings. The art therapist provides an opportunity for the patient to record these feelings in shapes and colors so that they may be examined after the moment has faded. The recording of body experiences graphically which reflect the qualities of physical activity and particularly their corresponding mental states is understood via the principle of isomorphism. When a structural correspondence exists between the configuration of a stimulus pattern and the way it is spontaneously perceived, an isomorphic relationship is said to be present. In daily experience, one’s state of mind may reveal itself in a physical gesture. This phenomenon is frequently referred to as body language. Rudolf Amheim (1966) has most effectively placed the concept of isomorphism into the context of the visual arts. The inner state of an artist is manifested externally through the production of a graphic configuration that mirrors that state on a structural level. Isomorphism is simply defined as similarity in structure between an internal state and its external expression.