Weaving Ourselves Whole

Product Description

The Weaving Ourselves Whole (WOW) experience is the tipping point of an expanded approach to human potential. The tools offered in this book invite and empower the reader to understand and embrace the “medicine” of creativity that is universally available in our own pocket! Weaving, looming, and braiding individual strands to stitch storylines together are the ingredients that lead to personal, team, community, and social transformation through the WOW creative process. While encouraging a deep dive into the exploration of the subconscious, the examples of this expressive arts approach fuel and awaken the imagination, which is said to be the most valued skill for our future economy. Greater wholeness and the power to make a difference in this ever-changing world is the opportunity and the invitation of Weaving Ourselves Whole. 

Gloria Chance, PhD Founder/The Mousai Group, Peak Performance Psychologist, Creativity Architect, Saybrook University Board Member

This book speaks to me deeply, connecting me to the essence of person-centered expressive arts. It weaved me into the lived wisdom of the authors on the use of arts for inspiration, healing, and wellness. Each sentence is an inviting thread of imaginative connection to clarity and compassion. As an expressive arts therapist, social worker, and educator, I am amazed by the rich trove of creative activities, engaging guidance, and heartfelt compassion in this book. Each of us needs to offer a space for this wonderful book. I imagine that the WOW seeds are spreading around the globe and planting in our heart fields.

Fiona Chang,  PhD, Founding President of the Expressive Arts Therapy Association of Hong Kong, Vice-President of Art in Hospital, Founder and faculty of Person-Centered Expressive Arts Training Program (HKU and CUHK)

I am in awe and inspired after reading Weaving Ourselves Whole! The work of the coauthors based on their creative and transformative experiences is a gift to the field of psychology and to anyone with a desire to explore expressive arts. This book is a guide on how to develop and facilitate a group process devoted to creativity and is sure to help move expressive arts forward into 2023 and beyond. Seeing the photos of the author’s creative explorations and the stories behind them are one of my favorite parts.

Kristen Clute, PhD, LMFT, LPCC, Expressive Arts Practitioner/Researcher

Weaving Ourselves Whole (WOW) is a magnificent work that brings expressive arts to life. The quality of writing is superb. A loving, thoughtful, compelling engagement of the authors with their readers infuses each page. Creativity and guidance to live creatively is given a central place. What comes through is the confidence and faith that you can do this—create a transformational expressive arts circle. WOW will be your steadfast, gently wise companion as you travel that journey. There is a short sentence I find myself saying again and again. This sentence reminds me of the way I want to live my life with others, by saying: “Tell me the story of your artwork.” Weaving Ourselves Whole offers this profound invitation, this invitation and welcome. Both are so needed by the world right now.

John Fox, Founder, The Institute for Poetic Medicine, Author of Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-Making

This groundbreaking book, Weaving Ourselves Whole, is a guide for individual and group exploration into the vast potential of our creative expression. The authors interweave extensive professional knowledge and personal experiences to demonstrate that expressive arts and working together in a circle, when woven together, can lead to greater wholeness. This book awakens creativity and invites us on a collective journey to become more fully human.

Scott Barry Kaufman, PhD, Cognitive Scientist, Humanistic Psychologist, Author, The Psychology Podcast, Professor at Columbia University, Founder/Director of the Center for Human Potential

Weaving Ourselves Whole draws you in right from the beginning. “Fear is a companion of change. And heroism is not the absence of fear, but rather the courage to act despite feelings of fear” (p. 26). Already the introduction is a WOW. The authors address a most burning must of our time, namely to move away from the egocentric view. Nowadays crisis, conflicts, and suffering are too large to be dealt with on an individual level. The authors claim that we can cultivate a collective mind and a circle that is holding each one of us. Adaptation and transformation need creative emergence. The expressive arts and the notion of an inner circle assist to move the spiral of the creative energy force and to access a greater energy outside of us. A circle is about interconnectedness, a mutual holding together in the circle process of relational, creative tension. This approach validates that we need both: individual and community growth.  Weaving Ourselves Whole speaks to areas in education, clinical areas, spirituality, social change, and personal transformation.

Margo Fuchs Knill, PhD, Professor, Psychotherapist, Expressive Arts Professional, Poet. Dean of the Division Arts, Health and Society at European Graduate School. Co-author Poetry in Expressive Arts: Supporting Resilience through Poetic Writing

The authors of Weaving Ourselves Whole have charted an exciting new dimension for those interested in the nature and application of creativity. They have expanded the person-centered approach of expressive arts into new dimensions, basing their experiences of a dozen years of work and a few hundred projects. Their readers will enjoy the results of the transformations they have wrought and may well experience transformations themselves as they delve into the book’s fascinating chapters.

Stanley Krippner, PhD, Psychologist, Researcher, Author, Professor at California Institute of Integral Studies

Weaving Ourselves Whole is itself a work of art, with all the essential strands for expressive arts circles woven together beautifully by its wise and humble authors. Based on the ancient archetypes of the weaver and the circle, WOW provides guiding principles and rich stories that will enable other groups to deepen their collective journey—tapping into wells of creativity that will nourish group members and the wider world. Highly recommended!

Bill Joiner, EdD, MBA, author of Leadership Agility, Founder/CEO of ChangeWise

We can walk through life on automatic pilot, using what neuroscientists term our “default mode network,” or we can choose to be fully alive, living a life of meaning and purpose. Many of us attempt this journey to greater wholeness alone, but soon find the daily grind drawing us back to a life of just surviving instead of thriving. All wisdom traditions teach us that community is essential to spiritual growth and transformation and Weaving Ourselves Whole provides a communal creative process that supports us in becoming people who can make a more positive impact in our families, work, and communities. In working with this profound book, you will feel that you are supported by loving hands and hearts of those who have gone before you. We each must do our own work, but we don’t have to do it alone.

Judi Neal, PhD, Executive Director, Global Consciousness Institute; Founder and CEO, Edgewalkers International
Author Edgewalkers: People and Organizations that Take Risks, Build Bridges and Break New Ground; Creating Enlightened Organizations: Four Gateways to Spirit at Work; and the Handbook of Personal and Organizational Transformation

Ever think about the wall that keeps you from reaching your paradise? This book, Weaving Ourselves Whole, just might be the map and inspiration you need to climb over to the other side. While sharing powerful examples of transformation of those involved in their life-changing circle of creativity and growth, the co-authors show you the way.

Anin Utigaard, MFT, REAT, Co-founder of the International Expressive Arts Therapists Association