Why Expressive Arts Support Groups Matter: Restoring the People Who Care for Everyone Else
- Erika Gilmore
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
Every day, helping professionals hold space for others.
Therapists sit with trauma. Nurses comfort patients through uncertainty. Teachers support children beyond academics. Social workers navigate crises. First responders witness emergencies. Caregivers often put everyone else's needs before their own.
While this work is deeply meaningful, it also comes with an emotional cost.
Over time, many helpers begin to experience emotional exhaustion, compassion fatigue, burnout, or a growing sense that they have lost touch with themselves (Maslach & Leiter, 2022). Traditional self-care practices, such as taking a day off, exercising, or getting enough sleep, are valuable.
However, they are not always enough to address the emotional weight of continually caring for others.
This is where expressive arts support groups offer something unique.
What Is an Expressive Arts Support Group?
Expressive arts therapy uses creative processes, including visual art, writing, movement, mindfulness, music, storytelling, and reflection, to help people process experiences that may be difficult to express through conversation alone (Malchiodi, 2020).
Unlike an art class, the goal is not to create something beautiful.
The focus is on the creative process.
Participants are invited to explore emotions, reconnect with creativity, and discover insight through artistic expression in a supportive, nonjudgmental environment. No artistic experience or talent is required (Knill et al., 2005).
Why Creativity Helps Reduce Burnout
Burnout affects more than energy levels. It can influence identity, relationships, creativity, motivation, and the ability to experience joy (Maslach & Leiter, 2022).
Research suggests that engaging in creative expression can help people:
Reduce stress and emotional overwhelm
Improve emotional regulation
Increase self-awareness
Strengthen resilience
Foster mindfulness and presence
Promote nervous system regulation
Reconnect with meaning and purpose
Build social connection and reduce isolation (Stuckey & Nobel, 2010)
Creative expression also provides the brain with an opportunity to shift away from constant problem-solving and toward reflection, curiosity, and restoration. These experiences are often absent when someone is living with chronic stress (Sonnentag & Fritz, 2015).
The Power of Group Connection
One of the most healing aspects of a support group is realizing that you are not the only one carrying these experiences.
Helping professionals often feel pressure to remain composed, competent, and resilient. Many struggle to admit when they are overwhelmed because they are accustomed to being the person others rely upon.
Within a supportive group, participants can:
Normalize their experiences.
Feel understood by peers who genuinely understand the demands of helping professions.
Practice vulnerability in a safe environment.
Learn from the experiences of others.
Develop healthier boundaries.
Rebuild connection with themselves and others.
Research consistently demonstrates that therapeutic groups reduce isolation, increase feelings of universality, and foster hope through shared experiences (Yalom & Leszcz, 2020).
Healing does not always happen in isolation. Sometimes it develops through community.
Expressive Arts Can Reach What Words Cannot
Many experiences of burnout exist beneath the surface.
People frequently say:
"I'm just tired."
"I'm fine."
"I don't even know what I'm feeling."
"I've lost myself."
Creative activities often help people access emotions that are difficult to identify verbally. Through colors, symbols, movement, metaphor, and storytelling, participants can explore their experiences in ways that feel both safe and meaningful (Malchiodi, 2020).
The goal is not to create artwork for others.
The goal is to reconnect with yourself.
Introducing: Holding the Holder
If you're a helping professional, caregiver, healthcare worker, educator, therapist, first responder, or someone whose role centers on caring for others, Holding the Holder was created with you in mind.
Holding the Holder is a 6-week expressive arts support group designed to provide a restorative space to reconnect, recharge, and remember yourself.
Throughout six weeks, participants will explore expressive arts practices including visual art, writing, breathwork, gentle movement, and guided reflection while connecting with others who understand the unique challenges of caregiving and helping professions.
Together, we'll explore themes such as:
The impact of holding others' stories
Role versus self
Perfectionism and inner criticism
Boundaries and what is (and isn't) ours to carry
Grief, moral distress, and meaning
Creativity, play, and sustainable self-care
No artistic experience is necessary. This is a process-focused group where curiosity, expression, and reflection are valued far more than artistic skill.
Participants can expect:
Expressive arts activities designed to support emotional regulation
Opportunities for reflection and personal insight
A welcoming, nonjudgmental environment
Connection with peers who understand the emotional demands of helping professions
Practical tools to support long-term resilience and well-being
Group Details
Dates: Wednesdays, August 19 – September 23
Time: 6:30–8:00 PM
Location:Premier Psychotherapy5150 Penn Avenue, Ground FloorPittsburgh, PA 15223
Facilitated by:
You Don't Have to Hold Everything Alone
The qualities that make helping professionals exceptional, including compassion, empathy, dedication, and service, can also leave them vulnerable to burnout when they rarely receive the same care they consistently provide to others (Figley, 1995; Maslach & Leiter, 2022).
Taking time to restore yourself isn't selfish. It's an investment in your well-being, your relationships, and your ability to continue doing meaningful work in a sustainable way.
If you've been feeling emotionally depleted, disconnected from your creativity, or simply exhausted from carrying so much, we invite you to join us.
You spend your days holding others. It's okay to let someone help hold you, too.
References
Figley, C. R. (1995). Compassion fatigue: Coping with secondary traumatic stress disorder in those who treat the traumatized. Brunner/Mazel.
Knill, P. J., Levine, E. G., & Levine, S. K. (2005). Principles and practice of expressive arts therapy: Toward a therapeutic aesthetics. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Malchiodi, C. A. (2020). Trauma and expressive arts therapy: Brain, body, and imagination in the healing process. Guilford Press.
Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. P. (2022). The burnout challenge: Managing people's relationships with their jobs. Harvard University Press.
Sonnentag, S., & Fritz, C. (2015). Recovery from job stress: The stressor-detachment model as an integrative framework. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(S1), S72–S103. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1924
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. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2008.156497
Yalom, I. D., & Leszcz, M. (2020). The theory and practice of group psychotherapy (6th ed.). Basic Books.
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