Drawing From the Heart: A Seven-Week Program to Heal Emotional Pain and Loss through Expressive Art Barbara Ganim 8 1/2 x 11 $24.95 paper 978-0-8356-0832-9

When the pain caused by difficult or unexpected life-changing experiences goes unexpressed and unreleased, it can unravel the fabric of your life. Where talk therapy fails to remedy the situation, expressive art proves successful. Breakthrough split-brain research tells us that imagery is our primary form of communication. Using an image to express a painful emotion allows us to see it in a way that is inaccessible through words, making us better equipped to transform a negative emotional reaction into a positive life experience.

In this beautifully designed book, Barbara Ganim shows us how to use imagery to identify what we are really feeling, rather than what we think we feel. Says Ganim, “When you draw an image of what an emotion feels like, you can finally separate what your verbal thoughts are telling you from what your body’s actually experiencing.” She then explains how to deal with those feelings. With colorful drawings and quotes from students in her workshops, she demonstrates how others have used the drawing from the heart process to express and heal their pain.

In as little as seven weeks—just a half an hour a day, three days a week—you can see dramatic results. You don’t need to know how to draw, nor do you need to purchase fancy art materials; crayons and markers will do. And the program is not just about serious stuff; many of the exercises call on your playful side. Expressive art as a personal tool for physical and emotional healing is well on its way to becoming as common a practice as yoga and meditation. Ganim’s self-help guide will put you directly in touch with this transformative process.

This profoundly healing book gives you a practical, rich, and illuminating method to tap into your inner life and harvest meaning from life's challenges.

—Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., author of Minding the Body, Mending the Mind, and Inner Peace for Busy Women

DRAWING FROM THE HEART is an excellent resource for awakening one's ability to heal. Barbara Ganim's book can guide you towards a state of healing free of guilt, shame and blame. As a physician, I know that the emotions you do not bring forth from within will destroy you. My prescription is to follow the wisdom contained in this excellent guidebook and heal your true self.

—Bernie Siegel, MD, author of Love, Medicine & Miracles and, recently, Help Me To Heal and 365 Prescriptions for the Soul

Expressing oneself through drawing and writing has an almost magical power to help heal emotional trauma, pain, and loss. Barbara Ganim is an expert guide in this domain, and DRAWING FROM THE HEART will be a source of comfort and healing for thousands.

—Larry Dossey, MD, author of Healing beyond the Body, Reinventing Medicine, and Healing Words

Emotional healing begins with the heart. Barbara Ganim's book, DRAWING FROM THE HEART, aids this process by providing a series of exercises as a way to emotionally heal by connecting with the heart through the expressive arts.
—Judith Cornell, Ph.D., author of Mandala: Luminous Symbols for Healing and Drawing the Light from Within; www.mandala-universe.com

For anyone on a journey toward the Light, Barbara Ganim's DRAWING FROM THE HEART is a torch in the night. Her questions and exercises help the reader cut through the darkness and scatter the shadows of past and present. A great assist for the great work of self-exploration.

—Jan Phillips, author of Marry Your Muse and God is at Eye Level


Barbara Ganim, M.A.E., C.H.H.C., is Assistant Professor of Expressive Arts and Program Coordinator for the Holistic Counseling and Expressive Arts graduate programs at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island, and conducts workshops focusing on art for healing.


Other titles by the author:

• Visual Journaling:
  Going Deeper than Words

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