Date of Award

Spring 5-16-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling

Major

Expressive Therapies

First Advisor

Dr. E. Kellogg

Abstract

This literature review examines the structural and philosophical commonalities between expressive arts therapy (EXA) and rave culture. Drawing on scholarship from anthropology, cultural studies, health sciences, transpersonal psychology, neuroscience, and expressive arts therapy, this review identifies five core principles shared between the two fields: transformational experiences, multimodality, entrainment and flow, containment and ritual, and community and social action values. Across each principle, the literature reveals not surface-level similarity but deep convergence — two fields that have, independently and through different lineages, arrived at the same understanding of what human beings need in order to heal, grow, and connect. To the author's knowledge, no prior academic literature has brought these two worlds into conversation, and this review argues that the absence of that dialogue reflects a broader tendency within Western therapeutic discourse to render some community-born healing spaces invisible. The implications for EXA clinical practice are clear: recognizing the rave as a legitimate site of transformational experience is not a departure from EXA's values but a natural extension of its existing decolonial commitments. This review concludes by calling for future research that is participatory, embodied, and developed in genuine collaboration with rave communities themselves.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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