What is Clay Therapy?
Unlike clay
which is administered on the body for beautification purposes, Clay Therapy
is a totally different experience altogether. Here, one will turn emotions
and expressions into tangible shapes by one's own sensory control of clay.
Clay
Therapy is a powerful medium to help people convey and work through many
issues such as anger, grief and loss, fear, guilt and blocked speaking.
Instead of traditional talk based therapies, clay therapy is especially
helpful for people who find it difficult to articulate their feelings
including children and adolescents.
Clay
therapy moves a person from painful emotional experiences to inner growth
and healing. It provides processes for healing and transformation
of difficult experiences. During a clay therapy session, one can then
express and resolve feelings regarding a certain issue and develop
expressions of self-protective safety.
How does Clay Therapy Work?
Clay has
the capacity to quickly absorb and express what we are
feeling, especially when we are not clear of our thoughts and we feel stuck
or unable to work through our problems.
Clay
arouses deep layers of feelings and enables one to express experiences that
otherwise remain buried.
Article on Clay Therapy
as featured on Caring and Sharing Magazine, Vol. 3 (in Mandarin) Click on
link)
Translated
excerpts from the article:
The trigger incident for
anger for Siau Fang, a working mother was feeling unappreciated as a 15 year
old child by her father who did not recognize her effort in doing well
during her PMR exams. Siau Fang tells her story:
Recalling a moment of imploded anger, an incident that happened a few days
ago came to mind. When I was busy doing my housework and taking care of my
four-month old daughter, my mother-in-law asked my, “Why didn’t you clean
your brother-in-law’s room? I felt that that question implied that I was
lazy and unappreciated for all the housework that I had done. Although it
was a very small matter, at that moment, I felt like my chest was going to
explode. I thought to myself, “My brother-in-law is 24 years old. He is an
adult. Can’t he clean the room himself? As I was supposed to be filial to my
mother-in-law, I answered her humbly and swallowed my anger.
I
stepped into the sensation in my chest, and once the anger was exploded, it
looked like a flat blob with buds sticking out.
I felt
like I was trapped in a torture chamber made out of a large stone. I felt
that there was not enough room to move or breathe. I molded the position I
was trapped in. My hands and legs were frozen rigid, representing a working
woman receiving pressure and unable to express her emotions. The repressed
emotions gave me a rigid feeling.
The one
who suffers was me at age 15 when I received my PMR results. When I received
my results, I was very happy to show the results to my father thinking that
I would get praised. However, my father only glanced at the results and said
in a cold manner, “You didn’t get an A for Bahasa Malaysia. What’s the use
if you get all A’s for other subjects but you didn’t get an A for Bahasa
Malaysia? At moment, she felt like a pail of water had just poured onto her
head.
It had
seemed like two different events, but I had the same frozen feeling. I had
put in the effort, but was not appreciated, and my faults were criticized
instead. The incident happened many years ago and I thought that I had
gotten over it.. However, it was still in my memory and resurfaced as anger
with my mother-in-law.
I felt
that the qualities required to heal was recognition and appreciation. After
deeper contemplation, I found that what I actually lacked was
self-confidence. I molded the quality of self-confidence in the shape of a
thumbs-up sign. I selected golden yellow as the colour of self confidence
and breathed in the healing qualities. I molded a sun representing as the
recovering one. I felt totally cleared of these negative emotions. When
faced with the same emotional issue again, I know I won’t be so angry and
her face will have a radiant smile. After completion of the Clay Therapy
session, I felt much lighter.
Anger Torture Chamber
The Wounded One Self Confidence The Recovering
One
Click here to view
photos on clay work
Clay therapy workshops / personal sessions we conduct:
For
enquiries, please
call Dr. Selina at
(6) 013 – 630 2926.
