Art-therapy   Sometimes words are not enough. Sometimes we don´t know how to use them. Sometimes we need other ways to explain how, or what, we feel. Sometimes we don´t even know what we feel. Sometimes our bodies and our inner voices and feelings are sadly neglected. Because we think we don´t have the time, because we tell us they´re not so important, because - maybe - we´re also a little bit scared of what we might hear if we listen beyond the familiar patterns of our brains and beings. Why? Cause we´re afraid of change? Cause we´re afraid of the darkness that might be there? Or could it be we´re afraid to struck light? Hidden capacities of joy, strength and love? It strange how, sometimes, the things we long for the most are those we might be most afraid to find!                     There are lots of things in life that calls for clarification... Why are we sick? Stressed? Worried? Why don´t our relationships work the way we want? What do we lack in our lifes? Self-esteem? Courage? Strenght? Joy? Balance? Rest? Love? Spirituality? The list can be made long. In art-therapy we use pictures, colours and shapes to find new and other ways of discovering what´s really going on inside us. These are excellent tools when we want to open new doors to looking at our world - the inner as well as the outer. We often find the work done in arttherapy being equally as rich in message as can be our nightly dreams - in however form they might appear, they´re always good and healthy messengers from sources beyond our common daily grasp and selfcensorship. All with important things to teach and tell, if we care to take them seriously.   And it´s not difficult, or very advanced or anything. The thing to be able to do is just to allow yourself to trust and follow the process. This is where the arttherapist comes in to guide and to keep you in the flow of whats happening. Even though it´s always you, as the client, who decides what doors to opens, who sets the pace and who hold all the keys and answers. As the therapist, I am there merely as a viewing, supporting and mirroring friend along the way. Sometimes I might come with a few suggestions, most of the time asking questions you might have to answer to take a new step or just seing things more clearly. So artherapy is really about combining artwork with good, clarifying and reflective talks. And don´t worry about your artskills - you absolutely don´t have to be a descendent of the Rembrandts or the da Vincis to do this! In fact it can even be a good thing if you never, ever touched a brusch, a pen or piece of clay before...  Working with me you ´ll find that we sometimes also may agree on using the help of our nightly dreams, of a guided meditation or, more rarely - but still - we might even try some music, easy movement, dance or poetry to set us better on our way.     Following the way I see things you´ll also find that I always try to focus on the light within us. Not that the darkness and the troubles aren´t important or allowed to be there, no, not at all - they´re important indicators of what we need to learn and deal with - but because I´ve found that by increasing the light  within - putting focus on the good things we are, do and think about ourselves - the dark and troubled parts seems to fall away. Blink off. Giving us new strenghts and ways to handeling our problems. For sure I´ve found that to work on myself, as well as clients and friends around me. Now, focusing on the light does not come without an effort, but it sure can change our lifes - as well as the way we usually look at, and go through, therapy! Again, the way I see it, it ´s good and high time that we leave the beliefsystems that has, up till now, been built around ”therapy” as being something dark and dreary - always connected to thoughts of hard and painful work. No, now it´s time to take back and appreciate the original latin meaning of the word which is; ”make whole, unite”. So what it really means is us becoming one with ourselves, or our true selves if you like - a totally natural call and process that can be acknowledged by all of us. And there are, of course, many ways in life to following this call - Arts and Artherapy being, in my eyes, some of the most joyful and rewarding. You´re most welcome to contact me for more information!                                         Marit Lindqvist, art therapist.                                                                                 For more info please contact us here.