Focusing & Art

You are inherently creative

Focusing with visual art engages your creativity through emergence and flow, setting aside perfectionism and self-doubt for a sense of exploration. Slowing down, you let your felt sense travel from your hand to the page. There is no requirement or skill level; only an openness to what comes.

Benefits of Focusing & Art

Visually depicting an inner process, discovery, or emotional learning is a powerful way to make sense of your experience and integrate subtle changes into your being. Engaging with the image during and after a session, you may notice that it continues to evolve as a living organism. The meaning shifts on a symbolic level and something new may emerge. This dialogic process lets you relate to yourself in a more fluid, forgiving, and open way.

How it Works

Focusing with art can happen in person or online. Before our first session, think about what you wish to explore. Perhaps it is to unlock a creative block, have an open-ended experience, work with a dream, or get clarity on a situation or project. I may suggest ideas and we will collaborate on a process that allows for experimenting and intuition. Here are some phases you may look forward to.

Settling & Sensing

We begin by establishing the framework and intention for the session. I will invite you to slow down and sense into the nuances of your experience: Your breath, a vibration, a slight movement, a background feeling, or more.

Easing into Flow

Picking up a different color in each hand, you may draw in sync or separately. Each hand will have a different feeling. Using them in tandem, you may sense the quality of one pouring into the other, bringing balance and integration of opposites. Or, you may have each hand talk to each other. Working with movement, music, or an idea also invites a particular quality to be present.

Focused Work

Examples include:

Exploring an issue or situation
Representing aspects of your personality & their relationship inside your system
Getting perspective on relationships
Mapping a project and its components, relationship of the parts & the whole

Materials

I encourage you to start with materials you already have, and that you like to use. For variety, I like drawing tools that let me experiment with and refine pressure, texture, and shade. For this reason I recommend pencils, crayons, oil pastels, and/or watercolors. Pencils give a lighter, finer touch and are good for writing; oil pastels or crayons are dense and thick; and watercolor has an ethereal and airy quality.

Working with Me

I was certified as a Focusing Oriented Professional by the International Focusing Institute in 2022. I offer Focusing sessions in-person (in Northeast Ohio) and virtually, regardless of location, for $125 per hour and $160 for 90 minutes.

If you would like to explore the possibility of working together, please contact me to learn if Focusing may be right for you.