IX Coach

Coaching approaches

Expressive arts coaching

Expressive arts coaching uses drawing, movement, writing, music and other media to explore a question, on the view that some experience comes through images and sound more easily than through talk. It draws on the expressive arts tradition set out for therapy by Paolo Knill and colleagues. Two reviews of the wider arts and art therapy literature are the closest research. No outcome study of expressive arts coaching as such turned up in the sources checked on 2026-10-14.

What it is

In an expressive arts session, you say what you want to explore and the coach offers a few ways to work with it, such as drawing, collage, movement, writing or sound. You make something quickly, without aiming for a finished piece. Then you describe what you made and what you noticed while making it, and the coach asks questions about the work rather than explaining it for you.

The approach moves between media on purpose. A theme that feels stuck in words may open when you work with it in paint or movement, and returning to it in a second medium can show what the first one hid. The result is a question for you to consider, not an interpretation to accept.

Where it comes from

Paolo Knill, Helen Nienhaus Barba and Margot Fuchs Knill set out intermodal expressive therapy, which works across art forms, in Minstrels of Soul (Knill et al., 1995).

The coaching form adapts that idea to conversations about change. No outcome study of it turned up in the sources checked.

The principles underneath

Many ways of knowing

Feelings and ideas can come through images, movement and sound as well as through words.

Process over product

The value is in making and noticing, not in how good the piece looks.

Move between media

Working in a second art form often shows something that the first one kept out of view.

You decide the meaning

The coach asks questions. You decide what the work means to you.

How a session runs

  1. You say what you want to explore, and the coach offers a few media to work in.
  2. You make a quick piece in one medium, without aiming for a finished result.
  3. You describe what you made, and what you noticed while making it, in your own words.
  4. The coach asks questions about the image, movement or text, rather than interpreting it for you.
  5. You try the same theme in a second medium and notice what changes.
  6. You close by naming one thing the work showed you and one way you will carry it into the week.

When it tends to fit

  • Words keep circling a feeling you cannot name, and drawing or moving it might bring it closer.
  • You are stuck on a decision and find yourself sketching the options, then noticing which one you keep returning to.
  • A conversation has gone flat, and you want a different way in.

What the research shows

Evidence: Some peer-reviewed studies

Two peer-reviewed reviews sit closest to the approach. Stuckey and Nobel (2010) reviewed the link between creative arts engagement and health, covering visual arts therapy, music, movement and expressive writing. Their abstract says art-based interventions are effective in reducing adverse physiological and psychological outcomes, but that the extent to which they enhance health status is largely unknown. Slayton, D'Archer and Kaplan (2010) reviewed outcome studies on the efficacy of art therapy. These reviews concern art therapy and the arts in general, which are parent practices. No outcome study of expressive arts coaching as such turned up in the sources checked on 2026-10-14.

Where the evidence is thin: The reviews cover art therapy and creative arts in general, not coaching. The coaching form is not therapy and has no outcome research in the sources above. Stuckey and Nobel state that the extent to which these interventions enhance health is largely unknown.

Sources

  1. Knill, P. J., Barba, H. N., & Fuchs Knill, M. N. (1995). Minstrels of Soul: Intermodal Expressive Therapy. Palmerston Press.
  2. Stuckey, H. L., & Nobel, J. (2010). The connection between art, healing, and public health: A review of current literature. American Journal of Public Health, 100(2), 254–263.
  3. Slayton, S. C., D'Archer, J., & Kaplan, F. (2010). Outcome studies on the efficacy of art therapy: A review of findings. Art Therapy, 27(3), 108–118.

Where it stops

Expressive work can bring up grief, trauma or memories you did not expect. If that happens, or if distress does not settle afterwards, a qualified art therapist or counsellor is the right support.

Making something is not the same as understanding it. A piece can feel meaningful without showing what it means, and the coach's reading of it is a question to test, not a verdict.

Practices for this approach

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