BODY IN THE CONTEXT OF PROMOTING RESILIENCE THROUGH THE METAPHOR OF ART

Zuzana Tulák-Krcmáriková
Dr., Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Education, SLOVAKIA, tulak@fedu.uniba.sk

Abstract

In the present times, which imply pressures on individuals in many ways, it is difficult to maintain coherence of one’s own health. As a response to the difficulties of being, which are present in a person’s life on an every-day basis, many minor and more serious health issues may appear, regardless of a person’s age. Not listening to the signals of own body, understating or completely ignoring or denying them brings the risks of occurrence of physical, mental, psycho-somatic illnesses and even sensory dysfunctions. Self-care, not only in terms of physical appearance, diet and overall lifestyle is considered inevitable part of a person’s life. Paying to attention to oneself, feeling the emotions, understanding the language of the body, being aware of one’s own limitations should not stay on the level of wanting. One of the various ways of how to get to know oneself better, how to learn to listen to one’s own body, one’s self, and one’s needs is art therapy and its techniques and approaches. Several ways of working with the body scheme, self-image and self-perception have been developed and used. They are linked by the effort to create insight, to establish a new perspective of looking at oneself, understanding and accepting oneself. Stemming from this knowledge, we constructed a pilot research study based on gradual creation of images that at the end come into one unity in an individual body scheme of the person. Comparisons between each step of the process and the content of the final body scheme were conducted. We observed similarities in the colour scheme, content, symbols, themes and the process of art-making itself. Strongly connected with these observed features was the initial body position when creating the individual traced image of the body scheme. Already in the creation of individual parallel images, the observed individuals were discovering and revealing their themes, which linked to their coping resources and stressful life situation. In majority of cases, individual images and styles appeared in the final body scheme that the participants filled with content in the final art therapy session. They discovered their painful points metaphorically as well as physically. At the same time, it was important for them to realize the connection of the physical symptoms with the perceived threat that was reaching them in various forms. The results of the conducted pilot study suggest that this body-scheme oriented art-therapy technique can serve as a useful therapeutic tool in the exploration of psycho-somatic symptoms. The paper is a partial outcome of the project VEGA 1/0598/17 Evaluation of The Effective Factors of Multisensory Approaches in Therapeutic Education.

Keywords: Art therapy, body scheme, self-perception, self-esteem.