MULTIMODAL NATURE OF THE PROCESS

Transitioning from movement to coloring in the TBT brings the visual art element into the mover’s process. The importance of moving from one modality to another in the expressive process has been delineated by Kmll and his colleagues’ Crytallization Theory (Knill, Barba, & Fuchs, 1995). The authors underline the fact that imagination is multimodal. An image can have representation in many different modalities, and moving from one form of expression to another keeps the image alive and three-dimensional. This process of transferring allows different aspects of the internal experience to unfold and its meaning to become crystallized. The use of TBT in an educational or therapeutic setting allows for various levels of multimodal transfer. After going from the process of movement to coloring the TBT, the participant can go back to moving in response to the TBT or to writing in prose or poetry. In every step, a new aspect of the experience is revealed to the mover. New connections can be built among the parts of the body as well as among the body and the emotional and the relational world. What is significant is that as the mover engages in further exploration through movement or writing, the TBT is present in the room, hanging on the wall with all its colors and forms. In a way, it keeps the body alive and visible in the room, always grounding the meaning one arrives at, at the bodily level. The following quotation exemplifies one participant’s process of reaching integration through her work with movement and TBT:

We had experienced the dance of the right and left halves of the body. I was experiencing movement and mobility on my right side, while my left side all the time wanted to make 90 or 180 degree turns and resisted moving forward, in a polarity with the other side. This created a sense of limitation and being stuck in me. It was kind of a dilemma like “I can, I cannot”. I expressed this on the TBT with the circular forms on the left side and with a pink mold covering the left foot. After we completed the dance that integrated the right and the left sides, this feeling of being stuck began to disappear and all of my body became more mobilized. I drew this on the TBT as a red line connecting my right and left palms. That day and the following day, when I remembered this limiting sensation and started to feel unpleasant, seeing my TBT really helped me, through reminding me this integration through the hands.

THE PROCESS OF AESTHETIC DIALOGUE

Over time, a dialogue seems to unfold between the moving body and the body that appears on the paper. The sensations of flow, aliveness as well as pain or being stuck come to awareness and find expression on the paper through a creative and aesthetic medium. Going back and engaging with the image in turn allows the body to find a way of integration.

This process of engaging with the image and continuing to explore it and responding to it is in fact akin to what McNiff (1992) describes as the process of “Aesthetic Dialogue”. McNiff proposes treating an image as having semi-independent reality. This approach involves seeing the image not as something that can be “interpreted” but almost as an animated thing that can offer support and guidance. This can be achieved through adapting an attitude of “receiving” the image and engaging with it in a dialogue. This dialogue involves a real openness, where the meaning is not presumed but emerges in the process. It also involves a sensitivity to the aesthetic elements that become evident in the artistic expression. According to McNiff and his colleagues (1992), it is this sensitivity to the aesthetic elements that moves the dialogue further and allows for crystallization. According to Kmll et al. (1995), the aesthetic element allows us to approach painful material without mobilizing our anxiety and defenses. Staying in the creative realm invites one to maintain an aesthetic sensitivity where the senses are engaged and alive and can be present to what appears. In fact, this effect is supported by findings from neuropsychology of aesthetics. As demonstrated by Di Dio et al. (2016) while viewing artwork, our interoceptive neural network is stimulated. When we are aesthetically moved by an artwork, we also want to stay attuned to it, to look at it more, which increases access to memory (Tschacher et.al., 2012). It can be said that when our aesthetic sense is stimulated, we become more present to ourselves and to that which we are viewing. It opens up space inside for deeper processing.

In arts therapies, the aesthetic element emerges from the authenticity of expression and the high sensitivity to experience rather than any skill (Knill, Levine, & Levine, 2005). Being true to oneself and letting the inner experience find full expression are the key elements of aesthetics in arts therapies. The impact seems to be one that feeds into the experience of bodymind (Koch, 2017). Research in neuroscience also supports that the aesthetic element triggers the primary reward systems in the brain and stimulates pleasure and bonding with the piece of art even when the content may be unpleasant (Hamch, Wagner, Shah, Jacobsen, & Menninghaus, 2014). Hence, it supports the motivation and commitment to one’s process that is needed for deep exploration.

In this work, as the movers’ engagement with their TBTs deepened, they often reported encountering new, unexpected imagery that appeared on the TBT. One mover describes her process:

After exploring the left and right body halves in movement I go back to my TBT. I add a pink wing to the right side of my body while deep purple iron bars appear on the left side. I am surprised. Butterflies and a cage together in the same body!

Sometimes the new imagery that emerges out of the dialogue is received with joy as a precious gift that seals in the newly found sense of cohesion. At other times it can lead to a striking and difficult encounter with an aspect of oneself that was not in one’s consciousness as evidenced by the reflection below by a participant:

Through the process, I added spirals on the drawing and began coloring the whole body. ... Later I realized that I hadn’t drawn anything on my face. My whole body and even my hair was full of colors yet my face was plain white. Realizing this fact was striking; whiteness in my face was pure, clean but also frozen and vacuous.

TBT AS A PARTNER IN DIALOGUE

When the TBT is first drawn and hung up on the wall, movers have a lot of reactions to it. At first it looks raw and empty, and as such it can bring up surprise or discomfort. Over time, as the creative and aesthetic process deepens, a strong connection develops. Many movers described their TBT as a “mirror”, a resource for getting to know oneself. However, this was not just a passive, inanimate mirror; it was described as a “multi-dimensional mirror”.

Many movers described it almost as an animated being, an independent entity with connections to one’s self. In fact, the boundaries between oneself and the TBT could become blurred. One mover described her experience as “I don’t know if it was my mirror or my shadow. Reflecting many bodies inside my body.”

Another mover described her TBT as “It is both me and a product of me. Something that I worked on little by little, I waited for, I cultivated and I discovered.”

Many movers also described the development of an affective bond with their TBT as their process unfolded as exemplified by the following quotation:

I could not take my eyes off my TBT. I wanted to look at it all the time. It was as if the more

I looked the more we got to know each other, our connection became deeper, more intimate.

It was as if my TBT was gaining a personality, becoming animated. As I was walking to the studio in the mornings, I found myself wondering how it was, how it had spent the night.

It seemed that the process of coming to own one’s TBT with openness and affection paralleled accepting oneself and owning one’s process of growing embodiment. The bond that was created with one’s TBT secured one’s commitment to the process.

The fact that the TBT accompanied the movers throughout their process seemed to lead them to feel contained and held in their experience. Many movers talked about feeling “seen” or "heard” due to its presence, which then “opened up space inside of them” to see themselves better. It was obvious that the TBT became an important support, a partner and a figure of guidance in one’s process. Some students also reflected on the intimate dialogue that began between their bodies and the TBT. In this dialogue the TBT was depicted as an active partner, “speaking” to them or “making them move”. The dialogue that emerged seemed to be happening beneath the level of consciousness:

The TBT moved me. There appeared an intimate space between us and in that interactive field the movements were borne. It was really as if it talked to me. I felt that it commanded to that which was still inhibited, that could not yet dare to move.