EMDR and Creative Art Therapy: Giving Voice Through Imagery with Dissociative Clients

Abstract
This engaging workshop will focus on the benefits of specific art interventions matching each of the 8 phases of Eye Movement, Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) through case examples and time for several art experientials. The presenters are art therapists and EMDR clinicians who provide integrative and phased approaches to trauma treatment in their clinical practices. While foundational knowledge of EMDR is recommended, participants do not have to have therapeutic art experience; the taught creative directives are appropriate for the non-art therapist’s use in clinical practice. Ethical use of art and art materials in therapy will be reviewed. Several art therapy cases with dissociative/DID clients, utilizing artwork in EMDR, will be presented. Art therapy offers myriad opportunities for multicultural inclusion and accessibility with art’s inherent ability to transcend language barriers. Consideration of cultural differences will be made throughout.

Both art therapy and EMDR are embodied processes with trauma-focused perspectives that provide dual awareness, containment, and resource development, fostering affect regulation, resiliency, and transformative opportunities (Sigal & Rob, 2021). The art directives shared support these benefits and will include creative timelines in history-taking, containers for regulation, body scan imagery (with discussion of somatic awareness and interoception that often is diminished with dissociation), bilateral drawing, resource development, future templates, and other creative ways to support the Adaptive Information Processing system (AIP) a foundation of the EMDR model.

While both art therapy and EMDR have empirical studies to support their use in trauma treatment, the robust number of EMDR studies (de Jongh et al, 2024) far outweigh research in art therapy. There are significant recent studies investigating the impact of art therapy treatment with complex PTSD (Schnitzer, G. et al, 2021; Heijman, J. et al, 2024). It is exciting to see recognition of their integration in emerging studies of art therapy with EMDR (Sigal, N. & Rob, 2021).

Art therapy is considered a best practice approach in working with complex trauma and dissociation and has been part of the field’s development since the early1980’s. As trauma’s impact on neurobiology can create fragmented and chaotic memories and “speechless terror” using expressive therapies such as art imagery, movement, drama and music offer a way to make visible what is invisible, and offer a voice for survivors. The process of art-making can bridge implicit and explicit memory, assist in re-organizing chaotic memory, foster cognitive re-structuring and promote integration of trauma memories (Hass- Cohen et al, 2018). Additionally, there is a Jungian Active Imagination foundation to art therapy that allows dialogue with the art product, enhancing possibilities of identifying and communicating with Self-States. Art therapist Tally Tripp published early on the benefits of art therapy and EMDR, remarking that trauma treatment must be flexible, creative, and present-focused “…engaging the client in titrated experiences…”