Art Encircles Life: Journeying With, In, and Through the Expressive Arts

This article presents the work of two expressive arts therapists who traveled and taught around the world between February and April 2024. Our journey actually started on October 7, 2023, when we were supposed to start teaching in Israel, and instead found ourselves waking up into the barbaric outbreak of this new Israeli–Hamas war. Since that time and in the aftermath of a world forever marked by this tragedy and its aftermath, we have been searching for ways of being of service and engaging in and amplifying our understanding of the ways in which the arts contribute toward healing and the building of resilience in times of conflict, war, and disaster. During our journey, we teach in established creative and expressive arts therapy training programs in South Africa and India as well as teach in burgeoning and newly developing programs in Zambia and China. Wherever we go we are surrounded by the arts and arts practices and learn again about the lifesaving universality and importance of artistic expression.