Peace Between Israelis and Palestinians Through Art Therapy

In contrast to traditional talk-based therapies, art therapy dismantles the hierarchy between therapist and client, in which the therapist is typically looked up to as the ‘expert’. As art therapist, psychologist, and course director Robert Gray (2019, p.14) writes in his book: “in art therapy the client is the expert and by interpreting their guided acts of creative expression they are empowered to find their own truth”.

This process liberates the therapist from the pressure of possessing all the answers. It encourages the client to source solutions from within the self, and from the wisdom contained in the unconscious. The answer is always in the seeker.

The importance of the therapist approaching the client with curiosity instead of concrete truths, or preconceived opinions is further reinforced by Gray (2019, p.14) “as the art therapist, assume you know nothing; the clients are the experts of their pictures”.

Guiding verbal exchanges in a way that leads to the client making their own discoveries about what things mean for them is supported by Havsteen-Franklin (2016, p. 156) who explains “for the therapist the patient produces an art form that remains ambiguous until clarity emerges through exploration”. By offering deep focused listening, and creating a ‘holding’ space, where the client feels, seen, heard, and understood, art therapy can be both revelatory and reparative (Robbins, 2016, p.136).

Neuroplasticity, Art Therapy & Trauma

After a traumatic experience, humans tend to replay the trauma in their mind over and over. This rumination holds us prisoner to the past. As scientist and renowned author Joe Dispenza (2014) argues: “when crisis or trauma occurs, we spend too much attention and energy thinking about what we don’t want, instead of what we do want” (p.19). By fixating on past trauma (sometimes involuntarily) we relive the experience in our body, and remain trapped in a traumatised state, feeling chronically unsafe. This idea is echoed by Yoav Zohar in his book Soul System (2014, p.7) where he explains “mental, conditioned and fixated fears, invoke suffering by imposing false sensations of danger where no danger exists.” Neuroplasticity is an antidote to this traumatised entrapment, as it asserts that we can change our brain just by thinking differently (Dispenza, 2014). Once we shift our mindset and start imagining, visualising, internalising, and manifesting what we do want, we install new neural circuits in the brain that reflect a new level of mind. This is supported by the principle in neuroscience and the frequently used saying “When neurons fire together, they wire together”.

I want to explore neuroplasticity in relation to expressive arts therapy, examining a workshop between Israeli and Palestinian women. The workshop was facilitated in 2006 by expressive arts therapist Natalie Rogers, the daughter of Carl Rogers. Carl Rogers was one of the founders of Humanistic Psychology, which debunked the “authoritarian medical model and created a relationship model of personal growth in which the therapist respects the client’s capacity for self-direction” (Rogers, 2016, p.231). In addition to feeling aligned with some of the key tenants of expressive arts therapy, most notably the importance of ‘empathetic understanding’ and “using the arts to let go, to express, and to release” (Rogers in Rubin, 2016, p.232), I selected this workshop as I currently live in Tel Aviv and the generational trauma in this region sometimes feels un-healable, especially after the recent October 7th attack and the ongoing Israel-Hamas War.

Expressive Arts Therapy: A Conduit for Cross-Cultural Understanding

The workshop was titled “Bringing Israeli and Palestinian Women Together for a Peaceful Future: Using Listening Skills and Expressive Arts to Bridge the Divide.” The emphasis on the words ‘future’ and ‘bridge’ is significant, as it aligns with Dispenza’s (2014, p.20) encouragement of emotionally embracing the future potentials that exist in the quantum field. For Dispenza (2021) one needs to be intentional about selecting a desired future and “by connecting this with the elevated emotion of what it would be like to be there in that future, in the present moment, the body begins to believe it is actually in that future experience” (p.20). Expressive arts therapy is a powerful conduit for igniting neuroplasticity as it’s premised on the idea that we “express inner feelings by creating outer forms” (Rogers, 2016, p.230). Encompassing dance, art, music and improvisational drama, the holistic, inter-disciplinary nature of this therapeutic modality enlivens the senses “involving the mind, the body and emotions to bring forth intuitive, imaginative abilities” (Rogers, 2016, p.231). The improvisational dimension is critical for the efficacy of neuroplasticity, as it disrupts hardwired ways of being, allowing new circuits in the brain to form. As Rogers’ (2016, p.231) explains: “client’s go beyond their problems to find a new sense of soul…envisioning themselves taking constructive action in the world”.

The two-day workshop brought 20 women together in Neve Shalom Peace Village. The format included an ice-breaking introduction where women used movement, scarves, and music. They were then invited to do a series of artworks, capturing their sense of inner peace, outer peace, and blocks to peace. Each woman then wrote about their pictures, “delving into their own personal feelings of hope and frustration” (Rogers, 2016, p.244). For the facilitators, this first step of self-analysis is crucial before “entering into any kind of encounter with the so-called other, you believe is causing the suffering” (Rogers, 2016, pp.244 -245).

On the second day the women were paired with someone from the other ethnic group, to create a clay sculpture. The women sat on opposite ends of the table, each with their own chunk of clay, no dialogue was allowed as they each took turns building the sculpture. Neuroimaging studies show that traumatic experiences de-activate the left frontal cortex, which is responsible for speech (Talwar, 2007). In this way, the non-verbal modes of expressive arts therapy are helpful in illuminating what is alive in the mind.

While Rogers doesn’t specifically reference the terms ‘neuroplasticity’ or ‘trauma’ in her description of the workshop, the non-verbal conversation with clay and the mailability of the material itself, created the conditions for participants to internalise and materialise what Dispenza (2021, p.20) calls ‘desired destiny’. In that present moment, the women were building something together, moulding a material with their hands that symbolically and literally represents the land. By engaging in this act of co-creation, using one of the most elemental, sensory materials, which connects us to the earth and brings us back into our bodies, the women formed a piece of ‘shared territory’.

Although Rogers (2016, p.245) recorded moments of tension during the creative exercise and discussion afterwards, where women spoke of ‘wounds, suffering, invasion, and walls’, by holding space for this conflict, witnessing it, and creating an empathetic environment, the women could transcend conditioned polarisation, allowing trauma to be transformed into connection. Furthermore, by emphasising what participants could learn from each other ‘rather than focusing on right and wrong’ (Rogers, 2016, p.245) the facilitators created a fertile ground for the women to shift hardwired ways of thinking and imagine a future of cross-cultural understanding and peaceful co-existence.

While we cannot change our external environment or political landscape, through art therapy, we can reach the hidden corners of our emotional landscape, accessing unconscious feelings buried in the body and the mind. By bringing this unconscious content to the surface we cultivate the self-awareness, necessary for the healing process to begin. The important word here is ‘process’ as healing is an ongoing journey and new challenges will always arise. Art therapy is not a one-time fix, however what I hope to have illuminated in this paper is that by externalising the wounds of the past, we move from suppression to expression, from chronic fear to catharsis, from avoidance to awareness. In doing this, I believe it is possible to heal parts of ourselves, build resilience and live in greater alignment with our desired destiny.