Expressive Body in Life, Art, and Therapy

Daria Halprin trained since early childhood as a dancer and performance artist and toured internationally in the Dancers' Workshop Company. She has appeared in several films, most noteably in Antonioni's Zabriskie Point. She studied with Fritz Perls, the originator of Gestalt therapy, which led to her interest in psychology. In 1978 she co-founded the Tamalpa Institute, the first training center for movement-based expressive arts therapy, where she developed and codified her approach. She holds a Masters degree in psychology, is a Gestalt therapist and a registered expressive arts therapist. She conducts trainings at the Tamalpa Institute, teaches internationally and has a private practice in Marin County, California.

In this book is an introductory guide for newcomers to the field of expressive therapy. It includes many concrete examples of Halprin's method in visual illustrations and through a variety of therapeutic excercises. One of the highlights of expressive therapy is its embrace of multiplicity fuelling an initiation into de-territorialised spaces of mind and body, where anything can happen.

• Foreword (Jack Weller). Preface. Acknowledgments. Part One: Introduction. 1. Movement as Metaphor. 2. How I got Here. Part Two: Roots and Cross-Pollination. 3. Historical Context. 4. Psychology. 5. Somatic Psychology. 6. Dance. 7. Modernism, Postmodernism, and the Avant Garde. Part Three: The Practice. 8. Creativity, Art, and Therapy. 9. Maps and Methods of the Practice. 10. Body Part Metaphors. 11. Living Artfully with the Wounded Self. 12. Case Studies. Part Four: Conclusion. 13. Art as a Healing Force in the World. References. Index.