I am studying for a doctor's degree in South Korea, studying this unpopular major that has just started in China.

In a doctoral class taught in Korean, I desperately wanted to understand but could only catch scattered fragments-the kind of anxiety that I wanted to understand but couldn't keep up, even I didn't realize it. But the Korean professor caught my uneasiness through my tight shoulders, evasive eyes, and pauses.

At that moment, I realized more and more deeply that when words cannot reach, the body will tell the truth. That's why I went to Korea to studyart psychotherapyThe reason for the Ph.D.-After more than a decade of local practice, I wanted to return to the academic system and find a more systematic professional path for the connection between the body and the inner mind. Many people ask me what is art psychotherapy. Simply put, it is to use dance, art, music, drama and other methods to help people reconnect themselves and heal their hearts.

In 2006, I entered the university to study dance. During a pre-show warm-up, the body was accidentally strained. During that time, I used to sit on the floor of the rehearsal hall, not knowing what the inexplicable things in my body were. This experience planted a seed-I began to observe and think about the body.

In 2013, I accidentally joined a dance/Movement Therapy training program in the United States and found that it was completely different from the dance I was exposed. No one commented on whether the action was beautiful or not in class. The instructor only focused on "what your body felt" and "what emotions were in your heart when doing this action". After all these years of dancing, no one ever asked me how I felt.This completely changed my understanding of dance-the body is not only a "performance tool", but also a "portal to understand oneself". Since then, I have finishedAmerican Dance Therapy Association(ADTA) Dance/Movement Therapist certification system training and pursued a master's degree in Psychology.

I'm often asked, "Does dancing therapy really work?" I had my doubts when I first started studying. What really convinced me of its value was a little girl diagnosed with autism. In the second half of 2014, I entered a special school for children with medical education. The little girl rarely take the initiative to express, almost no eye contact with people.My job is to build a silent healing relationship with her through movement, play, rhythm and physical interaction. I use words to describe what she is concerned about and what she is doing-not asking questions, but accompanying descriptions to let her know that everything about her is being seen.

Led special children to carry out "dancing group" activities during the internship in 2014

One day, she suddenly took my hand. Later, she began to express her needs with simple movements and look for me with her eyes. Until one day, she looked up at me and called out "mom". At that moment, I was shocked-for a child with social communication barriers, this name means that she has a deep trust and attachment to me. She is not called mother in the sense of blood, but the one who can enter her inner world.At that moment I was convinced again: the moment she called "Mom", the body had translated for me all the trust that words could not reach.. Later, during an interaction, her head slammed into my forehead and I made a subconscious look of pain. Unexpectedly, she took the initiative to come over and anxiously helped me blow my forehead to relieve my pain, instead of paying attention to herself.

At that moment I realized that she had developed empathy in relationships-she was beginning to see others. I didn't deliberately train her language, but rather create safe, seen relationships in physical interactions.When a person feels seen, understood, and accepted, her relationship with the world begins to loosen-language, socialization, and the ability to connect with people all naturally grow out of this secure relationship.. This made it clear to me that the power of dance therapy is not in the technique, but in the relationship that makes her feel safe and seen.

The biggest feature of dancing therapy is that it has the most direct connection with the body-dancing, deep things will emerge. However, interdisciplinary learning and years of practice have made me realize that there are limitations in a single medium-dance therapy uses the body as a channel, but not everyone can immediately enter the heart through the body, and people who are not good at dancing are often prone to resistance.When you ask them to "jump up" and "open their arms", they will instinctively step back-this is a cultural habit. Chinese people pay attention to modesty and introverted, the body also follow the introverted。

So later in the practice, I try to incorporate painting and music in the dance therapy. I guide the participants to start their bodies by dancing, and vague pictures or feelings often emerge in the movements, and then let them draw down these pictures or feelings, let invisible things "fall to the ground", and then return to music and dancing to continue their exploration. In this process, dance therapy is the main axis, painting and music are the extension: dance is the physical experience, painting provides visual presentation. I found that when I introduced Chinese classical music, folk dance, tai chi "yin and yang" or traditional Chinese medicine "body and mind" concept, they were more likely to open themselves. At the same time, I also began to think:How to provide more physical and mental connections while respecting physical work? This is the fundamental reason that prompted me to go to Korea for Ph.D. study。

After hosting the "safe study abroad" theme activity of the Ministry of Education, he took a photo on the stage of Quanzhou University in South Korea.

The systematic construction of Korean art psychotherapy discipline is about more than ten years earlier than that of China, and both China and South Korea belong to the East Asian cultural circle. Its localization and integration experience has direct reference value for China's practice. More importantly, some Korean universities have set up music therapy, art therapy, dance/action therapy andExpressive Arts TherapyProfessional courses can provide a clear path for systematic and in-depth learning.

Therefore, in 2025, I entered South Korea's Quanzhou University to study for a doctorate in art psychotherapy, with a major directionExpressive Art Therapy, Major in Dance/Movement Therapy. My doctor's guidance professor is a Korean traditional dancer. She has completed the academic training of Doctor of Expressive Art Therapy and Master of Dance/Action Therapy in the United States, and hasADTA Senior SupervisorQualifications, academic background and I highly match.

My doctoral thesis focuses on the research of Chinese dance therapy and expressive art therapy, and explores the localization path of single art mode and integrated multi-modal specialty in China. In the professional practice class, I gradually have a more specific understanding of this. Dance therapy takes the body as the channel and goes deep layer by layer along the feeling, which is a vertical and deep working path. Expressive art therapy integrates various art forms and provides multiple entrances, which is a horizontal working mode. The two orientations have their own emphasis and complement each other. This made me understand the unique value of the body as a healing channel, and also saw the unique advantages of different media working together-this is an important gain for me in Korea.

These years of practice have made me think: what does dance/movement therapy from the West mean in the Chinese cultural context? At the same time, I have observed a cognitive tendency: Chinese learners are often used to "understand what it is first, and then participate in it". They need an understandable framework before they are willing to enter the physical experience. However, the western ADTA system training I have received often emphasizes "direct experience"-first move, then understand. This difference relates to how one discipline is re-understood in another culture. The western system of dance/movement therapy needs to be cut directly from the body movement, which is a challenge for Chinese beginners, but because of this, its experience is more direct and profound.The Korean classroom is based on the theory of "first understanding, then experience" approach to teaching practice, which is close to the cognitive habits of Chinese learners.。

The second semester of the doctor "expressive art therapy" course creation results show

In practice, dance/action therapy does not have much buffer space-you have to move for the body to respond directly; while expressive art therapy provides multiple portals, which can be cut through the experience of visual art or music, and then transition to physical expression, etc. The exploration process is also safer and more natural. Participants can choose their own comfortable way to enter. The two paths are not alternative relationships, but complementary.This "vertical in-depth horizontal expansion" framework, let me more clearly see the unique value of different ways.. The healing power comes from the transformation and cooperation between media, and it is necessary to find the most suitable bridge for each person. Returning to China with this understanding is the ultimate goal of my choice of this road.

People often ask me, "Can I study art therapy without artistic expertise?" In fact, the number of people studying in this field is quite wide.International Association for Expressive Art TherapyThe IEATA community includes therapists, teachers, artists, coaches and other practitioners from diverse backgrounds. Whether you come from psychological counseling, education, medical care, social work or art, you can find a learning path that suits you. If you want to engage in this industry, you really need two core competencies:One is the perception of people-Perceive the unspoken part of the other person's body;Second is patience.-Willing to accumulate, accept supervision and grow slowly. These are all based on the foundations of psychology, neuroscience and professional ethics, and the art itself-dance, art, music, drama-is the space in which healing takes place.

At the doctoral stage, the classroom teaching site of expressive art therapy integrates multiple art forms such as body dancing, music, musical instruments, painting, and handicrafts to carry out creative teaching.

Art psychotherapy has experienced a comprehensive discipline evolution path from a single artistic modality to an integrated multi-modal orientation in the world. Since the 1940 s in the United States, dance/action therapy, music therapy, visual art therapy and other single art modality disciplines have established mature systems. By the 1970 s, "expressive art therapy" came into being as a comprehensive discipline integrating multi-modal orientation. From the late 1990 s to the beginning of the 21st century, South Korea has gradually moved towards a comprehensive discipline training with a multi-modal integration orientation, and has now formed a complete system of comprehensive discipline training.

China started late, but it has taken a key step in the establishment of disciplines-dance therapy in 2025 and art therapy in 2026 have been listed in the undergraduate professional catalogue of the Ministry of Education, but professional teachers, industry standards and professional certification still need to be improved.If you are interested in the direction of art psychotherapy, you can choose a single art modal discipline with real feelings, establish a solid practical foundation, and then gradually move towards a comprehensive discipline that integrates multi-modal orientation.。

Art psychotherapy takes clinical psychotherapy as the core position in Europe and the United States. After entering China, it has gone out a differentiated path: expanding to multiple fields such as special children intervention, campus mental health, community care, and workplace decompression. In the post-epidemic era, the demand for professional healing talents continues to grow. How to transform the international mature system into a professional path suitable for Chinese local culture is a topic I am exploring. From entering the dance major in 2006, to encountering dance/movement therapy in 2013, to sitting in the Korean expressive art therapy class in 2026-I have walked this road for 20 years.When I used my body to interpret other people's stories, now I use my body to read my heart.. What I want to do is to bring systematic subject knowledge and cross-cultural experience back to China so thatThis gentle and professional healing power is seen and needed by more people.。