Embodied Tree: Empowering Its Symbolic Strength Through Creative Arts Therapy

Abstract

When fear and anxiety for the future gain ground inside of us, nature helps to restore our inner balance and strengthen our link to life. In a webinar for creative arts therapists, we used movements and art to connect with the wisdom of the tree. We embodied its symbolic power, which subsequently represented it in an art form. The tree’s resemblance to the human body and its use as a symbol in myths made it a vehicle to regain a sense of life’s continuation and transformation. As trees are interconnected through their roots, participants co-constructed a unity and a continuity with each other, a precious feeling in a time of isolation and absence of contact.