Research shows that art activates the sensory pathways so we can learn more effectively with the body, mind and emotions.
Depending on the individual case scenario, I have found it efficient to incorporate Intuitive Painting – a painting system that I designed years ago to motivate creativity for self-improvement – as a tool in my hypnotherapy practice.
In creativity there are no timelines… as the client progressively learns to let go of their pre-conceived ideas and limiting expectations, creativity happens with perfect timing. When the client comes to realize this, their results can become very rewarding. The art piece can represent a tremendous release of creativity. Their finished artwork can awaken their emotions, elevate their self-esteem, and give them self-confidence – all feelings that can be helpful to motivate them to achieve positive changes in their behavior leading them to success in achieving their desired lifestyle results.
| • | As a precursor tool for hypnotherapy treatment, Intuitive Painting can help the client who is reserved in nature, who has a hard time relating their feelings through verbal communication or social interaction and would like to have an outlet to express their emotions. |
| • | It helps to quiet the client’s mind from useless chatter, so that they can be more receptive to the guidance they want from hypnotherapy. |
| • | Intuitive Painting can be used by itself for the client’s benefit if they desire to experiment and express their creativity with the belief that they have no talent for art yet secretly or openly wish they had it. The experience helps them to form new neuro-pathways that the client can use later in other areas of their life as they discover their creative attributes. |
| • | As the client witnesses their ability to create art, they find evidence of the power of their mind, which by analogy they can also apply to modify their behavior for positive responses to their environmental, physical, mental or emotional challenges. |
| • | It provides me, as their therapist, with a guideline that I can use as a behavioral counseling tool for my client’s self-improvement. |
| • | The client’s subconscious knowledge manifests their thoughts and feelings with an ideo-motor painting response, without interference of the rational mind. Their artwork becomes a metaphorical mirror to their subconscious when their expression materializes into a visual testimony on the art paper. |
| • | It allows the client to find emotional metaphors or visual symbols that will aid them to overcome blocks and gain clarity in everyday life situations. This information can serve as inspiration for the client to take control over their life as they enjoy the reality of their creative being. |
| • | Intuitive Painting thrives in the present, in a state of awareness. It allows the client to rise from an overwhelming experience that may have triggered a primitive mechanism of survival in them – fight or flight – to a position of transcendence – that inner shelter that is always intact, where truth and freedom abide. |
| • | As the client starts to release, let go, and become immersed in creativity during the painting experience, they allow inspiration to happen. While leaving behind the critical rationale of the conscious process, intuition may start to manifest as rapid cognition, a state we sometimes call “gut feeling”. It is a way for the metaphysical to express in the mind, stimulating new wave patterns for healing that are transmitted to the rest of the body. |