Integrating Art Therapy and Yoga Therapy. Karen Gibbons

practices), mantra, and the many paths of yoga. To complicate matters further, yoga studios offer many different styles of yoga. This complexity can be needlessly overwhelming. Probably all of the styles of yoga offered in studios in the West fall under the umbrella of Hatha yoga. Hatha refers to the path of yoga that concerns itself with physical yoga postures. Hatha practices also include attention to the mind, breath and meditation; cultivating a practice of balance. Hatha means sun (Ha) and moon (Tha) and so refers to the balance of all natural forces. The Intention Centered Yoga and Art practices included in this book are meant to employ the principles of Hatha yoga in a simple and balanced manner, making them accessible to all (Lee 2014).

      Factors to consider in making yoga approachable include timing, simplicity and ease of execution. In order to honor these considerations, only a few aspects of yoga will come into focus here. The components chosen are: intention, mudra, meditation and yoga poses. These elements will be explained in detail in the coming chapters. In an attempt to accommodate every level of practitioner, the language has been kept simple. Familiar words were chosen, like meditation and yoga pose. Yoga teachers will be familiar with the term asana, meaning posture, but even the neophyte knows what to expect from the term yoga pose. Please understand that if you have training and experience you may wish to use your expertize to modify the practices as you see fit, to best serve your clients.

      Descriptive English titles were used to name the yoga poses rather than the traditional Sanskrit names. In the case of the mudras (hand gestures), their Sanskrit names were retained because there are no corresponding names in English. You may wish to educate those you work with about the terms and names for the various mudras, or you can simply refer to them as hand gestures and demonstrate or describe how to perform them rather than naming them.

      All of the yoga techniques mentioned here encourage attention to the breath. Deep cleansing breaths are a way to increase focus and coordinate breathing, as well as to open and close the yoga practice. Many yoga practitioners are familiar with chanting the mantra “om” for this purpose. People new to yoga sometimes confuse chanting in Sanskrit with religious ritual, or are simply uncomfortable with the strangeness of the practice. In the interest of remaining clear about the secular nature of the yoga practice and to avoid misunderstanding, the deep cleansing breath has been substituted. If you and those you are working with wish to use the simple mantra (chant) of om please do so. Om is said to be the sound of universal consciousness, or the sound of the universe. It is lovely to notice that the sound of many voices becomes one sound, revealing the union that is yoga (Lee 2014).

      Each step of the way you will make choices, deciding how best to use the material in this book to support the therapeutic relationship. The yoga journey was originally meant to become a way of life, undertaken with a guru, or teacher, who is “free of ego [and]…sees that he [the student] absorbs the teachings” (Iyengar 1995, p.28). The traditional yoga guru has a similar role to that of a therapist because an art therapist, yoga therapist and serious teacher of yoga all understand that learning and growth take place in relationship to each other. Yoga students were never meant to puzzle things out on their own. The same is true for clients of therapists who use the therapeutic relationship to develop trust and become attuned, affording the likelihood of security and growth (Gregson and Lane 2000).

      Why add art making to the practice of yoga?

      Yoga instructors who have a deep study of yoga philosophy could point to the many treatises on the subject and not find reference to art making. However, there is a strong correlation between yoga and creativity. Studies have shown yoga practitioners and meditators have brain patterns that correlate with those necessary for creativity. This includes the alpha waves that appear when the mind is relaxed and alert as well as measurements that correlate with novel ideas and insights (Davis 2012). The purpose of practicing yoga is to allow the effects to resonate in the rest of life. For yogi and art therapist Michael Franklin (2001), both practices are devotional because the person constantly witnesses creative effort with compassion. Franklin says, “These practices invite a rich, present-centered relationship of awareness to unfold…The wisdom of yoga philosophy helps…to understand the mystery of art and art therapy” (2001, p.97). Combining yoga with art making expands and enhances creativity and may enhance the expansion of personal insight as well. It appears that the two practices are mutually beneficial.

      Combining modalities

      When modalities are combined, ideally it is because they have both commonalities and complementary qualities. When the balance is right, the modalities can dovetail into a single approach. Art therapy and yoga have benefits and approaches in common because they both access healing non-verbally. The modalities differ in the tools they use for achieving these benefits. Art therapy uses hands-on involvement with art materials as the primary means to access novel ways for clients to learn more about themselves. Yoga uses attention to the physical body and the breath to access self-knowledge. Both modalities may promote stress relief, ability to focus, and work well to enable clients and students to shift habitual patterns.

      The means used for achieving benefits in art therapy and yoga are complementary but have in common the ability to circumvent the verbally oriented emphasis of the thinking mind. Combining yoga and art therapy provides a holistic alternative to traditional talk therapy. For those in clinical practice it is exciting to have an approach to mental health treatment that is not primarily oriented toward psychopharmacology or verbal processing with the capability to consider the body as well as the mind. In fact, research on the neurobiology of resiliency indicates that an integrative approach to therapy using art therapy in conjunction with mindful techniques that utilize yoga and the breath can improve coping skills and help to balance dysregulation common for those affected by trauma and other psychosocial stressors (Hass-Cohen et al. 2014). As psychiatrist Bessel Van der Kolk (1996) explains it, “brain, body and mind are inextricably linked, and it is only for heuristic reasons that we can still speak of them as if they constitute separate entities. Alterations in any one of these three will intimately affect the other two” (p.216).

      Action taken toward balance of the body, brain and mind is the healing impulse. According to Barbara Ganim (1999), “healing is an internal process. No person or thing can heal you. Only you can heal yourself. Healing restores balance and harmony to the body, mind and spirit” (p.44). The holistic healing available with a combined approach centers on establishing optimism, meaning and resolve – in short, consciously creating intention.