Frequently Asked Questions & Mythbusting around ExA Practices

Frequently Asked Questions Series: #1

Q (the one we hear most often): What is “intermodal Epxressive Arts”?

A: (one of many variations): 

Intermodal Expressive Arts is the philosophy and practice of combining all artistic forms of expression (visual arts, movement, drama, music, creative writing) and other creative processes to foster deep personal growth and community development. This philosophy stems from the belief that interaction with the arts as a whole can inspire, activate, and help to integrate positive change, transformation, awareness, and healing on both personal and collective levels. 

Intermodal Expressive Arts could also be called “integrated ExA”, or “interdisciplinary ExA”. This way of working was developed in the U.S. in the mid 1970s as a philosophical framework involving a multitude of methods for artistic expression, and at that time, focused mainly on the arts as therapy. The intermodal approach involves shifting between two or more modalities of artistic expression rather than focusing on a single discipline. The field of intermodal expressive arts has now been expanded from therapy settings to use in the many different contexts in which the arts can help us overcome the inherent struggles of being embodied humans.

Frequently Asked Questions Series: #2 

Q:  How/ is it possible and effective to combine modalities? Don’t you need extensive and professional level training in each one of the modalities to be able to use them safely, effectively, ethically, or competently with others?  Doesn’t it water down or confuse the focus not to work in just one modality? And all other variations of how is it possible to work with multiple modalities/disciplines.

A:  This question comes up a lot in the outreach that we do in places where intermodal/interdisciplinary/integrated expressive arts is still a very hazy or largely unknown concept. Intermodal ExA is based on the premise of artistic expression being embedded into our DNA, and that we already, in fact, express routinely in multiple modalities. In today’s world though, we seem to prefer or require “specializations” and have developed a skepticism of interdisciplinary or multi-disciplinary ways of working, believing that it requires years and years of study and practice to become competent enough to use a modality in professional mental health or community arts settings. For some professions or practices this does make sense (heart or brain surgery for example). For others, this strict “silo-ing”  become exclusionary and can result in more cost and effort, and a reduction of helpful options or solutions to problems.

Intermodal ExA was created in the soil of anthropological and philosophical considerations of how humans use ritual play and the arts to help contain or express what seems uncontainable or inexpressable in everyday (verbal) language and actions; not in the ground of professional art and the skill that might be required to execute that function, and not in the language or practice of singular fields of “expertise”.

Paolo Knill, the co-founder of intermodal expressive arts as a philosophy and profession had a useful term: “low skills, high sensitivity” that he used to describe how this works. If one understands what it is to have an artistic practice (of any kind) and how the arts function in human societies, plus some basic training in each of the modalities and psychology and other relevant or adjacent fields, and a high level of empathy and sensitivity, then doing therapy or leading a group of people in an intermodal activity is not difficult or at all confusing. 

Each form of artistic expression uses a primary sense and will evoke or present certain possibilities or ways of working that are unique to that art form. The idea is that it is easier to gain complete access to “the just right image” (another Paolo term), by stimulating different senses, which can only be done by utilizing different forms of expression as required by the situation and the needs of the client. So it makes a lot of sense to be able to use them all.  The shifting of one form into another, when called for or helpful, is called an “intermodal transfer”. Sometimes access to another one or the whole array of senses is required to reach optimal realization and healing or to fully engage all of the imagination and the appropriate or helpful imaginative response. Intermodal expressive arts therapists and practitioners thus receive exposure to, and training in a wide range of subjects and arts modalities, even if we have a favorite or primary one. To become a therapist a Master’s degree is required (2 or 3 years of training); for people who wish to become educators or facilitators only (think community arts leaders, or teachers who want to know how to effectively use it in classrooms), there are certificate programs which can provide the adequate knowledge and skills development to do that. Currently there are none at any level in the Netherlands.

Frequently Asked Questions Series: #3:  

Q: Do intermodal expressive arts therapists/practitioners think the singular art forms are irrelevant or inferior?

A:  Not at all! (well, speaking from our own experiences and having a huge network of practicing intermodal expressive arts colleagues). Most of us have a primary art form that we have explored deeply and are highly trained or accomplished in, or we engaged with one form first and that became our entry into the world of artistic expression as a way of healing and understanding. But many (maybe even most) of us, subsequently started expressing quite naturally in adjacent forms and cannot even conceive of only using one form. And we find that we don’t need a degree in any of the other art disciplines or be at a professional level of an art form to still be able to use it in our work. Suzan, for example, began by writing poetry, followed by journaling, creative, and journalistic writing at a young age, discovered theater a few years later, and finally became immersed into the world of movement and dance in her late teens/early 20s. Sandwiched in there, she also explored the power of singing and rhythm (partially through her training to become a dance movement therapist, but also outside of it) and started working with Tarot cards as a form of visual storytelling and working with metaphor and symbol. It would be impossible for her to choose only ONE of these modalities in which to work.

Sometimes people do want to sink into a favorite modality and develop a high degree of skill in that area. That’s totally fine! It’s just not the goal of doing expressive arts with others in a therapeutic or community arts & healing setting: we’re not trying to train professional artists. We’re using the different art forms to help people to develop a greater understanding of themselves and the world.