Meet Cécile Rêve

Q: Cécile, can you explain a bit about how art therapy works. How can creating art help people grow and heal?

Sure. I’ll talk about the type of therapy we provide at ARTrelief, which is called Expressive Arts Therapy, or Creative Arts Therapy in other states around the country. Traditionally referred to as "intermodal therapy", Expressive Arts Therapy is an established mental health service similar to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Play Therapy, or Speech Therapy. It is a multi-arts approach to counseling based on our ability to access and stimulate the imagination by shifting from one art form to another. 

The creative process is skillfully used to stimulate the imagination, engage the senses, activate the breath and get the body moving to improve psychological health, cognitive abilities, and sensory-motor functions, and reach specific clinical goals such as developing speech, gaining insight into unwanted patterns, or overcoming  trauma. 

Expressive Arts Therapists are trained to assess what best art modalities would support a client’s process – and when – based on their goals and their symptomatology. By the way, this concept of moving between modes is what distinguishes Expressive Arts Therapy from neighboring disciplines such as Art Therapy, Music Therapy, Dance Therapy, Psychodrama, and so on. This being said, many professionals use more than one art form in their practice.

Q: I’m trying to imagine what might happen in a session. Can you walk us through that?

Clients often come into sessions experiencing some level of suffering due to a painful feeling or experience. For example, if a client tells me they are feeling “lost” and this makes them feel disempowered, I might ask them to describe that feeling with more specific words, and show me where they feel those words in their body, or what sensory details are attached to it. 

Once the feeling is connected to the body, I may suggest adding a gesture of movement to it so that we can collect more information about how it lives in the body, how it impacts the client’s inner narrative, and where it authentically yearns to go. 

After moving, I might invite the client to draw the feeling, and describe further the textures and qualities of that experience, focusing on the aesthetics of what they drew, rather than what they typically react to when simply recalling and talking about it. 

Once we collect data about this experience, we can invite curiosity and ask it what it needs. We can also draw what we’d like to feel instead, offering the client a “recovery map” that goes from A to B, bringing higher levels of consciousness and a possibility for more agency. 

When clients can imagine a road towards new ways to relate to a difficult experience, they have a more concrete idea of what type of skills and resources they need, in order to gain more emotional freedom and mastery.

Q: How do you integrate different artistic mediums into your work with clients? 

This process requires a lot of different skills. First it requires that the therapist have mastery in the art forms they use: the material or physicality of the work can go very wrong if we do not know our form. We need to be able to anticipate what material or intervention could be supportive, stimulating, grounding or soothing, depending on the client’s needs at any given moment. 

Second, it requires sharp moment-to-moment assessment skills to be able to attune to where the client is in their process, and infer what they may need to stay engaged and move forward. The therapist’s intuition and somatic empathy plays a big part in this process. 

An Expressive Arts Therapist who is properly trained will be able to use the information that comes from that realm by integrating all the elements described above, while also having clarity about their own biases and interpretations which are irrelevant, and sometimes even dangerous, to the client. 

Our ethical guidelines clearly stipulate it is unethical to interpret someone’s art. We hold space and guide as the clients themselves drive the vehicle of their recovery, and discover its meaning.

Q: What led you to this field? How did you train to become a professional in it?

I grew up in a household where visual art, music, dance, poetry, and theater were part of our everyday life. 

Several family members in my family suffered from significant mental health challenges throughout their lives, and having these forms of creative expression and communication readily available to me was a tremendous support when things were difficult. 

The arts have also been a way to express happiness and connect with others throughout my life. 

After obtaining a Master's degree in Marketing and a Certificate in Graphic Arts, I stumbled upon an ad about Expressive Arts Therapy while traveling on the subway in Boston. After doing some research, I realized this was a perfect match for me. 

So 26 years ago, I enrolled in a Master Degree program in Expressive Arts Therapy at Lesley University, and that was the start. 

By the way, today, my center hosts around 8 to 10 graduate students for their internship yearly.  Training students and future expressive arts therapists, as well as continuously contributing to an evolving field is an important part of our responsibilities, and a personal passion also. This allows us to stay relevant to the community's needs, as well as always learning.

Q: Cécile, why did you found ARTrelief? 

I founded ARTrelief because I wanted to be able to practice Expressive Arts Therapy with integrity, and to be able to balance raising a family and working full time. 

When the concept of ARTrelief was born in 2008, this was still a relatively new profession. And it was and still is difficult to do this work in the current mental health service models commonly used. Expressive Arts Therapy requires that we operate in person-centered ways – this is core to the treatment model. 

It is difficult to operate in this way in facilities where systems evolve around staffing, budgets and capitalist science. These are enormous barriers for us to create healthy work environments, delivering affirming and sustainable mental health care, and long lasting changes in our community.

It is a dream come true to have been able to see ARTrelief come to fruition and grow over the years. It has been my privilege to impact lives in long lasting ways, both clients and professionals. Personally and professionally, I feel very fortunate to have been able to devote myself in places I feel whole, and see my creativity and ideas actualize. My work at ARTrelief though at times all consuming, has been very stimulating and fulfilling on many levels; it has definitely fed my soul.

Q: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

When I am not at ARTrelief I like to walk in the woods, along the shore, or somewhere quiet and in nature. Biology, history and astrology are some of my favorite things to learn about. 

I also love spending time at home just hanging out with my family and cats. We can master the art of doing nothing. 

When I have the energy, I love adventure, discovering a new town, a new museum or having long talks with an old friend. 

Q: How can people find you to explore to learn more?

To find us go to our website www.artrelief.info or find us on Facebook and Instagram. If someone is interested in services they can reach out to me at artrelief.info@gmail.com