From Striving to Soothing: Expressive Arts Interventions
Experiential Exercises Summary
Values Exploration Exercise
Step 1: Values Sort
Invite the client to quickly sort through a list of values and identify their top 10–15 values without overthinking.
The goal is not to “get it right,” but to notice what they are instinctively drawn toward.
Step 2: Slow Down + Reflect
Choose one value at a time.
Invite the client to sit quietly with the value for a few moments and notice:
• thoughts
• emotions
• body sensations
• impulses
• imagery or memories
Encourage curiosity rather than analysis.
Step 3: Explore the Source of the Value
Help the client reflect on questions such as:
• Does this value feel grounding and authentic?
• Or does it feel connected to fear, pressure, approval, safety, or survival?
• Does this value feel expansive or rigid?
• If this value disappeared, what emotions would arise?
The goal is to explore whether the value feels connected to:
• Wise adult self/ authentic alignment
or
• a protective strategy or survival pattern
Emotional + Somatic Reflection
As the client reflects on each value, invite them to notice:
• What emotion comes up first?
• Does the value evoke calm, joy, curiosity, or meaning?
• Or does it evoke anxiety, guilt, fear, pressure, or tension?
Then shift into body awareness:
• Where do you feel this in your body?
• Does it feel heavy, constricted, warm, open, restless, numb?
• If this sensation had a color, shape, texture, or image, what would it be?
The goal is not to decide whether a value is “good” or “bad.”
The goal is:
• observation
• differentiation
• curiosity
• noticing protective parts without judgment
•
Clients are encouraged to approach the process like a curious observer — observing internal responses rather than trying to immediately change them.
The noticing itself is considered therapeutic because it creates distance from automatic survival patterns and increases access to new perspectives.
Brief Bilateral Scribble
Materials
• Large paper
• 2 crayons, oil pastels, or markers
• Optional: tape paper to table
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Basic Bilateral Scribble
1. Hold one drawing tool in each hand.
2. Begin making spontaneous marks on the paper with both hands simultaneously.
3. Allow the hands to move freely:
o side to side
o circles
o arches
o fast or slow
o crossing the midline
4. Keep attention on sensation and movement rather than making “art.”
5. Optional: close the eyes for part of the exercise and notice how the body wants to move.
6. Pause periodically and observe:
o emotions
o body sensations
o impulses
o imagery
o thoughts
Reflection Prompts
Afterward, invite reflection:
• What did you notice in your body?
• Did the hands move together or separately?
• Did one side feel more controlled, tense, playful, hesitant, chaotic, etc.?
• What emotions or parts seemed present?
• What did the movement feel like emotionally?
Brain Dump + Body Mapping Exercise
This expressive arts exercise combines stream-of-consciousness writing with somatic awareness and visual mapping. It helps clients externalize racing thoughts, increase nervous system awareness, and build connection between cognitive experience (“what I’m thinking”) and embodied experience (“what I’m feeling in my body”).
The exercise supports:
• emotional awareness
• interoception
• nervous system tracking
• externalization
• parts awareness
• slowing down cognitive overwhelm
• increasing curiosity rather than judgment
It also bridges left-brain verbal processing with right-brain sensory and emotional experience, which can be especially useful in trauma-informed and parts-oriented work.
Instructions
Materials
• Paper or journal
• Large body outline template (or blank paper)
• Markers, crayons, colored pencils, or pastels
Part 1: Brain Dump
Set a timer for 2–5 minutes.
Write continuously without stopping or editing. Encourage stream-of-consciousness writing:
• thoughts
• worries
• images
• fragments
• emotions
• inner dialogue
• sensations
• “to-do” thoughts
• repetitive thoughts
The goal is not organization or insight — only release and observation.
If the mind goes blank, continue writing:
• “I don’t know what to write”
• “I notice…”
• “Part of me feels…”
Encourage clients to let the writing be messy, incomplete, repetitive, or contradictory.
Part 2: Pause + Notice
After writing, invite a brief pause.
Ask the client to slowly scan inward and notice:
• What emotions are present now?
• What sensations do you notice in your body?
• Where do you feel activation, tension, heaviness, warmth, numbness, buzzing, constriction, openness, etc.?
Encourage curiosity instead of analysis or fixing.
Part 3: Body Mapping
Using a body outline:
• mark where emotions or sensations are felt
• use colors, symbols, shapes, scribbles, textures, or words
Invite intuitive expression rather than artistic accuracy.
Examples:
• red scribbles in chest for anger
• blue heaviness in stomach for sadness
• buzzing yellow lines in arms for anxiety
• black fog around head for overwhelm
• empty white space for numbness
Clients can:
• color lightly or intensely
• layer colors
• use arrows, symbols, or abstract marks
• include words or phrases if helpful
Encourage them to notice:
• Which sensations feel loudest?
• Which feel hidden?
• Which areas feel protected, shut down, tense, or activated?
Reflection Questions
After the body map:
• What do you notice looking at this image?
• Are there areas that want attention, care, space, or support?
• Do certain emotions feel connected?
• Does any part of the image surprise you?
• If one area could speak, what might it say?
• What does this part of you need right now?
Bilateral Scribble
Therapeutic art technique created by Linda Chapman
The technique is designed to help individuals move from a state of "stuck" or anxious energy to a state of flow and relaxation. It is a grounding, somatic tool that helps the brain "self-soothe".
Participants use both hands to make spontaneous, rhythmic, and often mirrored movements—such as circles, loops, or scribbles—across the page.
At its simplest, bilateral scribbling involves using both hands, alternating hands, or crossing the midline while freely creating marks on paper. Sometimes people do mirrored movements with both hands at once. Sometimes it’s more free-flowing and intuitive. The point is not to create something aesthetically pleasing—it’s to notice experience as it unfolds.
It’s a great way to connect with both sides of your brain, and this can benefit so many of us for so many reasons.
When we use our non-dominant hand, we can often bypass our usual thinking patterns. This helps us access new neural pathways to support calm, or it can help us process deeper subconscious emotions as well.
Often when clients begin scribbling, they’ll notice different energies, impulses, movements, or emotions showing up:
one hand may feel more controlled while the other feels chaotic
one side may want structure while the other wants freedom
movements may pull toward each other or away from each other
clients may notice judgment, playfulness, fear, anger, numbness, curiosity, or resistance all arising simultaneously
