This article creatively presents a framework of conducting expressive arts therapy online during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim is to help people tap into the four modes of being through multimodal arts to respond to the alienation in each of them due to the pandemic. Tea, which has similarities with watercolour but is more natural and easily accessible, serves as the core art material in the creative process. This article includes experience of the participants who voluntarily joined a one-off online workshop, giving a clearer picture of the therapeutic process and changes. The relevance of tea to the four modes of being is discussed, and the ways in which the framework can be implemented are explored.
This paper illustrates how Expressive Arts therapy within a depth psychotherapy perspective helps one to face a heightened awareness of the four existential givens of life: death, isolation, freedom, and meaninglessness. The case of a mainland Chinese gay man, recently diagnosed with HIV, demonstrates how his intersectional identities come into play throughout the therapeutic process of meaning-making. Guided meditation and relaxation through listening to music, drawing, improvisation using the voice and the body, psychodrama techniques, story writing and Chinese calligraphy, which combines writing and drawing, all highlight the role of intermodal arts in igniting and deepening the process.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.