ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines both the principles and practice of incorporating the use of ceremony and ritual into our work within the broader frame of eco-arts therapies. The Green Studio concept is concerned with the idea of moving the clinical setting out-of-doors, and to a state of mind, emanating from one's connection to poiesis. Ceremonies have existed across cultures for thousands of years. They offer a fascinating glimpse into our collective unconscious. Ceremonies incorporate myth, story, music, movement and symbolic objects. Expressive arts therapists are creating ceremonies with persons suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of forced migration, abuse, violence, sex trafficking, war, oppression and discrimination and natural and man-made disasters, and those who live with the debilitating complex of symptoms associated with PTSD such as anxiety, flashbacks, uncontrollable rage, nightmares, eating disorders, depression, repressed memories and so on.
