Is holiday stress and tension beginning to get the best of you? “Hit the pause button,” is the simple answer from Annette Guionnet, M.A., and director at the Guionnet Center for Expressive Arts in Santa Barbara.
I think to myself, there has to be more to it than that. There is.
“The goal is to slow down the mind, be present and enjoy each day during the season,” she says. “Instead we often run a marathon.”
To change gears, she suggests that every day you draw a picture. No, you don’t need to be an artist. The purpose is to help you center and have an outlet to express your feelings.
“This daily practice results in developing a natural rhythm to your days and helps you to pace, pause and be present so you don’t miss the day,” Guionnet says. “Meditation, prayer and art each have the ability to calm. The mind operates at high speed, but when you focus on one single image, the complexity is reduced to simplicity.”
Expressive art therapy is a healing mode. Through a variety of artistic approaches such as drawing, painting, dance, movement, collage and poetry, it can be used to overcome personal trauma and loss, leading to increased self-confidence, joy and inner peace.
Guionnet believes that art, as a feeling, is layered in evolution.
“Cave paintings came before refined language,” she notes. I asked her what the effect art therapy has on people who repress their feelings and are not comfortable in dealing with them. “You mean will it open a flood gate of feelings leading to sadness or depression? The fear is real, but the reality is not,” she says. “What happens is a surprise. What emerges is love.”
Guionnet grew up in Germany and France in the 1950s and ‘60s, while the modality of art therapy preceded her as it began to emerge in the 1940s. As far back as she can remember she drew and painted.
“As a child,” she recalls, “moving in nature and creating art grounded me. I was at home in color and creative expression.”
With a master of arts degree in education and teaching credentials in creative/therapeutic movement, Guionnet is trained in Gestalt therapy and has extensive experience in training psychotherapists. She has privately studied the Life/Art Process with Anna Halprin, an early pioneer in the expressive arts healing movement.
I told her about my son’s recent car accident and possible whiplash injury. She explained how she would work with him. “I would first have him draw a picture of his neck and how it feels right now. Then I would ask him, ‘What do you see, feel and imagine?’”
Next she would research the anatomy of a perfectly aligned neck and ask him to make a second drawing based on the picture of the healthy neck. “Then he needs to tell his mind to work toward that healing,” she says. “I would have him write a sentence instructing his mind to picture the healthy neck.”
Passionate about the benefits of expressive art therapy, Guionnet says, “Participants enjoy increased awareness and learn how to become calm, centered and focused. Artistic expression allows participants to explore their emotions in a safe manner, to release repressed tensions and experience serenity.”
So reducing stress during the holidays appears to be possible by making one simple drawing a day. But will people be able to push the pause button and actually do it? Guionnet laughs wholeheartedly and says, “They can draw in bed while eating chocolate and don’t even have to look intelligent — the benefits will still be there.”
Did I mention her sense of humor?
— Through her business, Mindset Management, Susan Ann Darley coaches and writes for businesses, entrepreneurs and artists from all disciplines. She offers a complimentary coaching session. For more information, click here, email her at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call 805.845.3036.
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