Böcker av Cornelia Elbrecht

A body-focused, trauma-informed art therapy that will appeal to art therapists, somatic experiencing practitioners, bodyworkers, artists, and mental health professionalsWhile art therapy traditionally focuses on therapeutic image-making and the cognitive or symbolic interpretation of these creations, Cornelia Elbrecht instructs readers how to facilitate the body-focused approach of guided drawing. Clients draw with both hands and eyes closed as they focus on their felt sense. Physical pain, tension, and emotions are expressed without words through bilateral scribbles. Clients then, with an almost massage-like approach, find movements that soothe their pain, discharge inner tension and emotions, and repair boundary breaches. Archetypal shapes allow therapists to safely structure the experience in a nonverbal way. Sensorimotor art therapy is a unique and self-empowering application of somatic experiencing--it is both body-focused and trauma-informed in approach--and assists clients who have experienced complex traumatic events to actively respond to overwhelming experiences until they feel less helpless and overwhelmed and are then able to repair their memories of the past. Elbrecht provides readers with the context of body-focused, trauma-informed art therapy and walks them through the thinking behind and process of guided drawing--including 100 full-color images from client sessions that serve as helpful examples of the work.

The first book of its kind on treating trauma in children through creative play with clay, written by a leading voice in the field of art therapy.From the moment we’re born, we rely on our hands to perceive the world. It’s through touch that we communicate with our primary caregivers and attain an abiding sense of love and security. In Clay Field therapy, client children work with clay and water in a rectangular box. The therapeutic focus is not on object creation, but on the touch connection with the clay as a symbolic external world. Movement, touch, and sensory feedback that have long been out of reach are actualized through the creative process, enabling the child to heal past wounds and regain a more fulfilling sense of self.Author and therapist Cornelia Elbrecht has been a leader in groundbreaking art therapy techniques for over 40 years. In Healing Trauma in Children with Clay Field Therapy, she shows how embodied expression within the Clay Field can be an effective tool in treating children suffering the mental, emotional, and physical effects of trauma. She discusses the theory and practice of Clay Field therapy using dozens of case examples and more than 200 images. Working within a fun, safe, and trusting environment, children respond with their embodied braced, chaotic, or dissociated structures of the past, but are then able to foster new sensorimotor experiences that enhance self-esteem, empowerment, and a restoration of developmental deficits. Child therapists will find this book to be a valuable tool--working with a Clay Field can reach even the earliest developmental trauma events, repairing their damage through the haptic hands-brain connection.

Work at the Clay Field' is an art therapy discipline that uses sensorimotor methods that are highly effective for trauma healing in adults and children. This book is a comprehensive training manual for art therapists and mental health professionals covering all aspects of the approach including setting, theory, practice and case studies.