Process arts curriculum · Pittsburgh

Process arts

Expressive arts do two kinds of work. The first is regulation: an image at a kitchen table, a sustained tone, a slow walk across a room, each of which settles the nervous system before any cognitive work begins. The second is access: image, symbol, and dream as their own ways of knowing, reaching material the verbal mind has not yet named. The curriculum below runs both. Four modules, twenty-four practices, seven stations inside each practice. The structure follows Jamie Marich's Process Not Perfection; the lineages are Halprin and Levine for the body, Jung and Hillman for the image, White and Epston for the story, Knill and McNiff for the ritual.

I. The four modules

What each medium does

Each module names the medium of its primary work and the function that medium performs. The order is not a hierarchy. The Body module is placed first because regulation precedes insight when a person has arrived dysregulated, and most people arrive that way the first time.

Body

Marich Phase 1 stabilization, Porges polyvagal theory, Halprin Life/Art Process, Levine somatic experiencing

The body as the medium. Regulation before insight.

Image

Jung active imagination, Hillman archetypal psychology, Edinger

The image as the medium. The unconscious through symbol and dream.

Story

White and Epston narrative therapy, Schwartz IFS, stellar dispersion / Anti-Self

The story as the medium. Externalize the dominant narrative; reauthor what was authored about you.

Ritual

Knill / McNiff / Levine intermodal, Tedeschi and Calhoun PTG, Banks relational-cultural CARE

Ritual as the medium. The work moving from solitary into the room with another person.

II. The twenty-four

The full curriculum

Four modules arranged as quadrants of a wheel; six rings deep, threshold practice at the center, integrative work at the perimeter. Reading clockwise around any ring is a four-module pass at the same depth. Reading outward through any quadrant is one module's arc from threshold to integration.

Process Arts curriculum: 4 modules across 6 rings An interactive wheel. Each of the twenty-four sectors is a clickable practice. Four modules form four quadrants; six rings grow outward from threshold practice at the center to integrative work at the perimeter. 123456 Process Arts Curriculum 24 practices · 4 modules BodyImageStoryRitual
Four modules arranged as quadrants, six rings deep. Each cell opens to a practice; the curriculum advances outward, from the threshold practice at the center to integrative work at the perimeter.

Curriculum at a glance

Four modules, six rings. Each cell is a clickable practice.

Module R1R2R3R4R5R6
Body Containment Vessel ● The Body Remembers Grounding Through Image Sound as Settle Mask of the Moment The Quiet Station
Image Active Imagination Portrait ● The Dream Tableau Shadow Cartography The Compensatory Image Symbol Dialogue The Body's Hidden Posture
Story Externalizing the Problem ● The Flip-the-Script Diptych Parts on the Page Letter to the Old Story The Coronation Scene Stellar Dispersion Cards
Ritual Witness Pair ● The Adornment of the Reclaimed Constellation Drawing Five Domains in Form CARE Visualization Symbolic Enactment

III. Seven stations inside each practice

One practice, seven entries

Every practice runs through seven modalities. The participant enters at whichever one calls and may always pass.

  1. 1Visual Arts. Drawing, painting, collage; the image worked on paper.
  2. 2Movement and Dance. The body as the medium; posture, gesture, locomotion as expressive vocabulary.
  3. 3Music and Sound. Voice, drum, instrument; the practice carried by vibration and rhythm.
  4. 4Writing. Letter, list, poem, declaration; the practice held by the pen.
  5. 5Drama and Performance. Monologue, scene, gesture, role; the practice staged.
  6. 6Fashion and Adornment. Mask, crown, garment, talisman; the practice worn.
  7. 7Open Intuitive. No prescribed medium; the practice as it arrives.

IV. Find your route

Calibrate the prompts

The prompt at each station is written four ways, calibrated to two axes: how at home a person is in art-making, and how much direction they want today. The choice saves locally; subsequent skill pages remember it.

Calibrate

Which of these is most true today?

The prompts at each station are written four ways. The variant that suits a person who already paints differs from the variant that suits a person who is uncertain whether they should be here at all. Pick one; the choice saves locally and the station prompts re-filter.

V. The current state

What is published, what is coming

Four practices are written: the threshold practice of each module — Containment Vessel (Body), Active Imagination Portrait (Image), Externalizing the Problem (Story), and Witness Pair (Ritual). The remaining twenty hold their position in the curriculum and accept email signups for when each one goes live. Cells with a thicker stroke on the wheel are published.

A note on scope. The curriculum is counseling-with-creativity inside the ACA C.7.a frame, not creative-arts-therapy in the credentialed sense. The author is an LAPC in Pittsburgh; the practices are written for individual self-guided use and for facilitators bringing creativity into existing counseling work. Practices that involve symbolic enactment, parts work, or shadow material carry their own scope-of-practice notes inline.