1.  Research for the Institute for Child and Justice in Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Annette Jasperse / former student of the Michiel Czn. Dhont’s studio Molenpad Workplace

Annette Jasperse  / annette.j@daxis.nl  / teacher expressive arts and working with the method ‘the Timeless Hour’

Over a period of six weeks with one afternoon session of three hours a week, Annette Jasperse, under my supervision, has carried out research into the question from the judge: “Can and should the daughter of a divorced man visit her father who is living elsewhere on his own?”

This is a right that in principle every father has after a divorce. The judge ordered the Institute for Child and Justice to clarify this on the basis of research.

The first three joint drawing sessions at the location of Child & Justice with the mother, new boyfriend, brother and the six year old girl, already made some things clear.
In the last three claying and drawing sessions in which the girl concerned was alone with Annette, the claying sessions as well as all the drawings and the dialogue between the girl and the drawings she had made, after observation gave an even clearer picture.
The final judgement, arrived at in dialogue between the director of the Institute for Child and Justice, Annette and myself, lead to a negative advice to the judge.
The diagnosis through the method ‘the Timeless Hour’ had convinced the judge. The verdict was that the father was not awarded visiting and meeting rights with his daughter in view of previously exhibited irresponsible behaviour.

2. Margareth Barten / Art Therapist / mbarten@upcmail.nl

After my training I started using the method with adults. I have worked on a psychiatric ward for many years.

I first offered an exercise from the method of ‘the Timeless Hour’ to a patient I was counselling individually.

What greatly surprised me was that after the exercise she was able to explain in detail her inner experiences during the exercise.

What she told me corresponded exactly with the aim of the exercise as described in the book. Comparable experiences have occurred more than once, giving me confidence that these exercises are healing in many respects.

As of 2013 I will be working in education, teaching children with the method of ‘the Timeless Hour’.

In daily life she has been conditioned out of her left handedness. In the other hand she is holding a piece of clay which can give her more security and stability. Clay is one of the oldest materials on earth and can enforce the above mentioned feelings. Through feeling the clay in her hands the client can better access her body feeling. This makes her able to express her deep inner images more spontaneously in her drawings.

 

3. Hanneke Dingemans

The experience of a student in the Studio Molenpad Workplace through one of the expressive sessions from ‘the Timeless Hour’.

Some years before I came to paint with Michiel I had done an art therapy training. There I was unable to come into direct contact with my own inner images through expressive processes. Within the training course there was no room to do so.

It was a relief to experience the freedom of painting in ‘the Timeless Hour’ method. According to Michiel everything is good in origin as I have expressed it!

One of the most remarkable occurrences happened as follows:

At the studio Michiel offered us a specific exercise called the Archaic Script. After the script all of us also made a drawing with our eyes closed, on which we could later continue drawing with our eyes open.

During the exercise music was playing which consisted of rhythmic primal sounds with singing, various sounds and drums.
At the end of this session the drawing process was evaluated individually by all of the students through a dialogue with our drawings. In my dialogue with my recently made series of drawings the shape and significance of a power animal emerged. In this case the power animal emerged as the ‘Samoyede’. Within shamanism the power animal is a well known phenomenon where the human being takes a certain animal as their example and experiences power from that animal. This is also a well known phenomenon from the dream world.

Until then shamanism was unknown to me and I had never gone into it. I may have heard about it at some point, but it was really also something for which I had a kind of unreasonable fear, although I have immersed myself in astrology, chakras and many other esoteric subjects.

However, during the above described painting activity I effortlessly came into contact with a Samoyede, giving me a vague feeling of: “then this must be my power animal”.

Over the following weeks I did not pay much attention to this until I was walking over a moonlit quay with a friend in Amsterdam on our way to a concert by the jazz formation O.BA.O. in which Michiel is a double bass player. On the quay a couple came walking towards us with a small white Samoyede, which in passing reminded me of the moment in the drawing process at Michiel’s studio.

But what has occupied me most up till now was a request from the same friend several weeks later if I would look after his dog for a week. Perhaps I should mention here that I have never owned a dog myself and also do not have a pronounced preference for dogs.
Up to the moment that the dog entered my home I did not even know what kind of dog it was going to be and I got a bit of a shock when I saw it … a large white Samoyede. My power animal had come to meet me. We spent a week together. This has meant a lot to me.

Addendum by Michiel Czn. Dhont
Through working in an expressive intuitive way at drawing and painting via the method ‘the Timeless Hour’ (in this case the exercise the Archaic Script) a creative stream develops out of the subconscious which eventually can result in a more conscious experience and/or recognition, as in this case with the Samoyede.

The book het Slimme Onbewuste (the Clever Subconscious) by Ab Dijksterhuis clearly shows that subconscious knowledge is an enormous source of power and provides significance. Experiencing quality and mental clarity can deepen, enrich and balance human existence.