Artistic Systemic Therapy
Heather O’Donnell is an Artistic Systemic Therapist (certified by DGSF).
What is Artistic Systemic Therapy ?
Artistic Systemic Therapy blends aspects of arts therapies (i.e. music therapy, drama therapy, visual arts therapy) with tools from systemic therapy.
Systemic therapy is an approach that grew out of Family Therapy, which addresses whole systems instead of de-contextualized individuals. Whole systems might be a family, a group of friends or a working organisation. Systemic Therapy doesn’t tend to ask: ‘What’s wrong with you?”, but rather “What influences you?”, “What impacts you?”, and “What needs to change so that you can move forward?”. We approach problems holistically; looking into the relevant and influencing systems for insights into what shapes one's own assumptions and sense of reality. We might challenge habitual patterns (in a responsible way, of course) in order to unravel knots of inertia, stagnation and immobilization. Through this work, a client discovers his or her own solutions to the presenting problems.
And the artistic part? We explore issues, problems, solutions, and new possibilities together through artistic means. We dive deep - many times below verbal/conscious levels - listening to messages hidden in the body, beneath cognitive conscious control, seeing what realities and truths are reflected back to us through the art we create and engage with. Then we take these murmurs from our sub-conscience / somatic native intelligence and dig for personal archeological findings: creating meaning(s), exploring expanded possibilities, and experiencing new freedoms.
Some examples of clients I’ve worked with (identifying information changed or removed to protect privacy):
A classically-trained pianist is struggling to find a way back into an improvisatory relationship with the instrument. She states that her relationship with the piano has turned into an antagonistic one over the years, and she is engaged in an ongoing battle to control it, with the sense that it often controls her, in limiting, frustrating, and unsustainable ways. Her impulse to improvise was dampened by the early suggestion that music may only be experienced through written notation and the imperative that “music lives in the score!”. This pianist senses a lack of creative autonomy and a narrow range of creative outlets. She is also susceptible to “being thrown off course” when she experiences high-pressure performance situations. Through working together improvisatorily at the piano, she begins to discover and develop her own musical voice. This understanding eventually brings her into deeper conversations with the composers she loves. Improvisation becomes a part of her daily artistic exploration and practice. It establishes a sense of space, together with a respectful and caring approach, to her relationship with the piano.
A violinist is experiencing frequent memory problems during performances. After talking through several possible causes for this situation, he makes a hypothesis for the problem: the music is not being stored in his ‘bones’ (so to say) in a reliable way. He feels that he is ‘holding the music at arm’s length’ and it’s not becoming part of him. We use artistic systemic therapy to find ways to embody the music creatively and securely. We use related artistic expressions - movement and drawing - to nurture this process. All the while we keep asking questions about the reasons behind his need to maintain a distance from the music, exploring simultaneously Artistic Systemic Therapy with traditional ‘talk’ psychological counseling.
A dancer is facing the distressing reality that her professional life as a dancer will end soon. Her body is not able to keep up with the demands she (and her professional art form) have made on it over the course of decades. She is facing the need to transition out of her dance performance career into … something else. She is having difficulty identifying what that could be. Her lack of imaginative ability probably stems from an engulfing process of grief over the loss of her artistic self-expression, a sense of being overwhelmed in the face of finding a new professional path, and a narrow sense of identity: “If I’m not a dancer, then what am I?”. Our work together toggles between psychological (talk) counseling and Artistic Systemic Therapy. In the Artistic Systemic Therapy sessions, we explore (for example) innate preferences through movements, I ask her to answer questions somatically (for example, through positioning herself in the room or through gestural movements). These kinds of inquiries had previously overwhelmed her, exceeding her abilities to verbalize wishes, preferences, and solutions. Through movement, she becomes more aware of her internal truths, opens up to creative ideas on the next phases of her life, and embraces her broadening identity as not only a “dancer”, but rather “a human being who dances, and also does many other valuable things”.
In sessions, we often use techniques from Artistic Systems Therapy in combination with other psychological counseling tools. Each client is approached as an individual, and the course of therapy is mapped out mutually, with changes made when necessary.
Booking / Prices / Conditions
Please book a free initial consultation (c. 45 Minutes) here:
In Person in TGR The Green Room (Cologne, Germany)
If you choose to continue, psychological counselling and Artistic-Systemic Therapy are priced at 100 € per session (60 minutes). I hold a certain number of spots each week free for those who cannot afford the full price and/or who are experiencing acute difficulties and need to be scheduled quickly. Please speak with me about these options at our initial consultation.
In case of cancellation, please give me 24-hours notice, otherwise I have to charge you for the session.