As women—and especially as therapists and healing professionals—we are often the ones who listen, who hold space, who guide. We create space for others to speak their truth, yet so often, our own voices go quiet. Not because we lack wisdom, but because the world rarely pauses long enough to hear it. Expressive arts offer a way back. They give form to the feelings we can’t name, movement to the emotions we’ve tucked away, and color to the truths we’ve been too tired to speak. When words fail or feel unsafe, creativity becomes our language. This is why expressive arts are not just a feature of our retreat—they are the heartbeat.
Why Expressive Arts?
Expressive arts bypass the analytical mind and invite us into a deeper dialogue with our intuition. They allow us to explore without judgment, to create without needing to explain, and to listen to the subtle whispers of our inner knowing.
These practices aren’t about making “art”—they’re about the process of expression.
Collage, Painting, and Journey Sticks
We begin with familiar tools:
- Collage helps us gather fragments of imagery that speak to our subconscious. The searching for images begins the process of listening within.
- Painting invites emotion to flow through color and movement.
- Journey sticks created by Karen Anderson-Fignon, sticks adorned with found objects from nature, become tactile representations of our personal path—each leaf, feather, or stone a symbol of something we’re carrying or releasing.
These creations become mirrors. They reflect what’s stirring beneath the surface.
Mandalas and Malas
We then move into sacred geometry and ritual:
- Mandalas, drawn, painted or collaged, help us center and integrate. Their circular form echoes the cycles of healing and wholeness. We used mandalas to represent our manifestations.
- Malas, hand-strung with intention, become wearable prayers—each bead a breath, a mantra, a moment of clarity.
These practices slow us down. They invite reverence. They remind us that healing is both spiritual and embodied.
Introducing Touch Drawing
This retreat, we’re adding a new modality: Touch Drawing. Created by Deborah Koff-Chapin, touch drawing is a profoundly intuitive process where fingertips move across paper layered with paint, capturing emotion, energy, and insight in real time.
There’s no brush, no barrier—just you, your hands, and the canvas. It’s a way to feel your way into truth.
The Wisdom Within
Each of these expressive arts practices is a doorway. A way to access the wisdom that lives beneath words. As therapists, we often forget that our intuition is a clinical tool, a spiritual compass, and a source of deep personal guidance. This retreat is your invitation to reclaim it.
Come Create, Come Remember
If you’re ready to reconnect with your inner knowing—through paint, paper, beads, and breath—this retreat is for you. You’ll be held in a space of safety, creativity, and community. You’ll be surprised by what emerges. And you’ll leave with tangible reminders of your own wisdom.
Let your hands speak. Let your soul create. Let your intuition lead.