Expressive Arts Hawai`i supports the expressive arts therapies in Hawai`i and throughout the Pacific. These therapies promote emotional, social, cognitive, and physical integration of the individual, for the purpose of improving health and well-being, and recovery from trauma.
The expressive arts in therapy include dance/movement, drama, visual arts, music, writing, and other creative processes to foster personal growth and community development.
Expressive arts therapy uses techniques from a variety of arts. This creates an approach that encourages people to explore responses, reactions, and insights through pictures, sounds, movements, and encounters with art processes.
Expressive arts therapy focuses on the therapeutic effect of the creative experience — it highlights the human capacity to transform thoughts and emotions into more tangible forms. The important thing is the process of creating, not the artistic outcomes. People do not need to have artistic ability to use or benefit from expressive arts therapy.