Embracing the power of creativity and language through Intuartiv Expression

Creativity, art, and creative expression have often taken a back seat in education, viewed as mere time fillers. However, creativity is extremely powerful, and I strongly believe that in the coming years, it will be recognized as an essential part of the healing and coaching process.

Throughout my years of creating and building Intuartiv Expression I saw that something was happening at much deeper level than simply exploring creativity and whilst working as a language trainer I began to feel that there was huge potential in the language field for creativity. I have researched all over the web for people working with language and creativity in the way that I do, to no avail. Art is often used in a way to teach tanguages (Art in French for example) but no one has used it in language coaching, nor has it been used as a coaching tool, except for helping people overcome creative blocks. it has been used as therapy, going down the medical field, but there is a huge area yet untapped, and that is in coaching.

And I feel that is where Intuartiv Expression comes in.

Briefly Intuartiv Expression is a combination of layering acrylic paint in an intuitive and heartfelt way, expressing through paint in layers, with the addition of high vibrational essential oils into the process for emotional release; you can read more about it here or a video of the process here.

Intuartiv Expression brings the unconscious to conscious, allowing the client to gain clarity on their path, what's blocking them, it also allows expression through visual rather than words, done in an unconscious way; When we paint with Intuartiv we are not "trying" to express something, we are instead letting go of control and allowing emotions to come up expressed through the paint. The intuitive choice of essential oils also reveals deep subsconscious insights into the situation while looking at the emotions that each oils works through. This is why Intuartiv Expression is a valuable coaching tool as it gives clarity on what we cannot see, it also give areas to talk through that hadn't been seen before as well as simply allowing the client to work through emotions in a purely visual way. "A picture paints a thousand words"

​How does creativity fit in with languages?

Working as a language trainer and coach for over 20 years between French and English whilst also creating Intuartiv Expression, I began to see how it could be used in the language setting with huge benefits.

​When we learn our mother tongue, we absorb the language globally through seeing, hearing and living with the language, absorbing it from the world around us, as well as connecting it to emotions and feelings. Eventually we begin to speak the odd word, then stringing together sentences and finally speaking it fluently. We can say, in very simplified terms that we absorb through the "right brain". (The brain is much more complex than this but the left and right brain is a concept that people are able to grasp easily).

Once this language is absorbed it is then "passed on" to the left brain to be sorted into grammar, structure and pattern. Think of playing with lego bricks then sorting them into colour, shape and size. 

When you come to learn a second language such as French, however, the way in which the language is taught is opposite to the natural flow. I'm pretty sure that if you have experienced language classes, you have been taught the grammar and structure of the language before you were even speaking it. The language would have been broken down into bits - words translated, giving you a vocabulary list of for example French words on one side and the English translation on the other side of the page. Tenses would be looked at indivsually and explained, often compared to the English tense. Then you were expected to put all this together and speak!

Can you see the difference? the language has been taught going against the natural process, going instrad from left to right brain, causing people to feel that they know words but can't express them, saying:

"I'm bad at French",

"I know the words but I can't speak them",

"I'm useless at languages"!

The language as been taught left to right brain, whereas your brain works right to left.

This is where creativity comes in. 

Creativity is a right brained activity and therefore doing a creative activity whilst learning a language switches your brain in to a more intuitive, feeling, emotional and global approach, making it an ideal base for language aquisition, giving the brain the opportunity to absorb the language in a more natural way as described above. It also allows your brain to connect to a visual content and movement, making it ideal for visual and kinesthetic learners.

The benefits of bringing creativity into the language environment are widespread:

• The fun factor​ - doing a manual activity while speaking makes the moment more enjoyable

• The focus is on the activity, not on the learner, making the moment easier, and less of that feeling of being in the spotlight

• It opens you up to your own creativity. We are born creative, we are in fact , creators of our own reality.

• Widens vocabulary -It opens up the opportunity to learn and use a wider range of vocabulary that you wouldn't necessarily touch upon in the classic setting

Taking that deeper, Intuartiv Expression in the language setting :

• Gives the opportunity to work through blocks learning a language such as lack of confidence, needing to be perfect, fear of judgement

• Brings in essential oils to aid working through language issues that come up. Essential oils used in the process allows deep emotional work

• Allows for conversation such as memories, emotions and issues that can be talked about in the foreign language, again widening vocabulary.

Intuartiv Expression is such a powerful tool, not only in the language setting. Intuartiv facilitators have used it in:

• prisons

• hospitals

• cancer wards

• violent and gang led schools

Using it for:

• Essential oil workshops

• Emotional breakthrough workshops

• Dealing with trauma, grief, anxiety

• 
  

Intuartiv Expression is also ideal for those working in:

• Psychology

• Coaching

• Counselling

• Education

• Health, mental, emotional and physical

• Team building

If you would like to know more just drop me a line here with any questions.

I shall be running a facilitator training course in the Autumn, let me know if this is something you are interested in.

Remember, creativity is not just an activity; it's a transformative tool for growth and healing.