Nature-Based Expressive Arts Therapy

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CHAPTER ONE

Expressive Arts and Ecotherapy

Shifting Paradigms

What if we painted the rivers red

with fistfuls of clay

Would we know then

That our veins are the same

That everything we do

Changes everything downstream

Would we wake in wonder

Or return to our sleep-dream

Melia Snyder

In my journey with expressive arts, I (Melia) have been most inspired
by my students. So many have commented on feeling “at home” in
the circles we create. I feel the same. Each time we gather, we are
taking part in a ritual and way of being that is older than any field
or discipline. I teach my students, as I taught clinical groups before
them, how to practice the Way of Council as articulated by Jack
Zimmerman and Gigi Coyle (1996). We practice listening deeply
from the heart without the need to analyze, agree or disagree, and
we practice speaking from the heart spontaneously, attending to
the essence of what is most alive. We pass our talking stick, created
through community art. Gathered around a central altar, much in