Living with Feeling: The Art of Emotional Expression (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "An old tale from India tells of a man who encounters a snake while walking on a dimly lit road at dusk..." (more)
Key Phrases: red terra cotta clay, creative vent, very thick piece, Inner Child, Critical Parent, Inner Critic (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

From acclaimed designer and art therapist Lucia Capacchione comes a practical and sensitive guide to sharing our mind, body, and spirit with our own feelings.

We cannot control our emotions; however, unless we recognize and express them, they can end up controlling us. The author of ten self-help classics, including Recovery of Your Inner Child and The Power of Your Other Hand, Lucia Capacchione now introduces us to the methods she has developed in workshops and with private clients for achieving an emotional equilibrium through artistic expression.

It is only through letting our emotions come forth and understanding them that we can further the process of self-acceptance and healing. The simple exercises outlined by Capacchione teach us to express pent-up anger by drumming, release hurt feelings by molding clay, and contact our inner child by writing with our non-dominant hand. Clearly, self-discovery has no limits.

Illustrated throughout with art therapy projects of her clients and rich with inspiring stories of personal triumph, Living with Feeling presents the key to making peace with our emotions by giving them a voice and the power of creative expression. Bibliography. Notes. Index.

About the Author

Lucia Capacchione, Ph.D., A.T.R., is an art therapist, artist, author, and popular workshop leader, as well as a corporate consultant who has worked for Hallmark, Mattel, and the Walt Disney Company.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher (June 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585421006
• ISBN-13: 978-1585421008
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #298,449 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Living With What...?, April 29, 2002

By	Marilyn H. Hamlin (New York, N.Y. United States) - See all my reviews

If you were raised, as I was, with parents who believed it was simply not all right to feel certain feelings; then, as I have, you will find this book liberating and very helpful. After reading the book, I wanted to particapate in a workshop session based on these writing and lead by the author. Because it took place with art therapy students at a graduate school in New York, NY where I live and practice psychotherapy, I was able to attend. What happened during the workshop class seemed nothing short of amazing as everybody in the group discussed their experience of new feelings while doing exercises from the book. Being given access to new parts of our feelingful life is a very useful gift -- that's what this book delivers!
Dr. Capacchione vividly describes the nine different areas of feeling and put forth ways that each of us, through simple, doable, exercises might bring forth those feelings in our own experience. I realized, while working with the ideas in this book, how I have avoided experiencing certain feelings that I surely must be having during a work day. But, why was I not able to feel all my feeling, all the time, and use the whole range of them to construct a better way of living? Dr. Capacchione's has written a guidebook for living in a new way, for engaging in a new process which is constructive and developmental in core ways .
Like many baby boomers, I, too, was trained from early childhood that any sign of certain feelings; curiosity (killed the cat), anger (bad), self interest (selfish), thoughtfulness (sullen) would make me into a "not nice person". This old notion from my youth, methodically suppressing and repressing whole areas of feelings, within me, in order to be a 'nice' person, became a very bottled-up, unhealthy way to live. It has become clear to me from reading this book that my living must include the art of feeling as I go into the fullness of adulthood and maturation.
The good news is that the work of learning to live with feelings is not too difficult. In fact, a lot of feelings are just plain fun, as I think you'll find this book to be. Take heart. Living life more fully and more naturally will bring about change for the better. This wonderful book has opened up a whole new area of understanding and healthy expression for me, my colleagues, students and patients. I highly recommended it to you. Marilyn H. Hamlin, PhD.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Unique, Complete, and Effective Approach to Emotions Work, April 26, 2002

By	beverly staley (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This is like having a series of workshops in a book. One can have his own workshop experience in whatever arts media and feelings arena he desires. Capacchione invites, indeed encourages the reader to experience, accept and express his emotions using an entire menu of sensory, experiential exercises. Offered for our pleasure are drawing, collage, painting, clay, music, dance, mask making and voice dialog. She explains the positive outcomes of using arts media to express feelings, useful examples from her workshops participants and invaluable resources for further study. This author is an artist with a background in psychology. She has done an extensive amount of work in the expressive arts field, including authoring many self-help books in this genre. I found this book to be a very positive, hands-on tool to use myself and to use with my clients.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good practical book for learning to work with feeling through artistic expression, February 2, 2007

By	Patrick D. Goonan "www.meaningful-life.us" (Pleasanton, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is a very practical book for working with feelings in a non-cognitive way. It is especially geared toward reclaiming buried feelings through the use of artistic expression. It contains many useful activities using a variety of mediums and for many people this type of work is quite powerful. I work in the psychology field and while I don't focus on this area as a specialty, I have witnessed the power of these techniques first hand. These ideas have also been useful to me in my own self-development work.