Aesthetic processes and products, motor and graphic, are an archaic alphabet and the creative experience is thusly a possible dialogue. The comprehension of the interdependence between the creative and therapeutic process has redefined the aesthetic dimension as a possible therapeutic instrument.

Winnicott has prized play and drawing as elements of communication and integration of the experience of the psyche. A. Robbins has established the theory and practice of an Expressive Psychotherapy; in such prospect the act of creating an image or a dance is not an attack on the cognitive process and the context sustaining it, but is a part of the therapeutic process.

The aesthetic production places itself as a third pole, summit and mediator of the communication between therapist and patient, enabling thus the articulation of new interactions. Historically, Expressive Psychotherapy found its field of appliance in the treatment for disorders that impoverished verbal expression or genesis of pre-verbal experiences (psychosis, personality disorders, post-traumatic syndrome). It is found useful with patients effected by organic pathologies and in multiethnic contexts and intercultural problematic, where the aesthetic productions confirms its value as universal language and as an incisive help tool.

Art Therapy Italiana, with its twenty years of experience in clinical training and practice, has developed Art Therapy and Dance Movement Therapy in a psychodynamic prospect. The Institute of Expressive Psychotherapy, recognized by the MIUR, is the result of such experience and ensures its further and creative development.