What is Art Therapy?
Art therapy is a form of expressive therapy that uses both psychological theory and the creative process of making art to improve a person's mental, physical, and emotional well-being. It is better defined as the psychotherapy that also utilizes the arts.
Art Therapy encourages:
The exploration of feelings through Self Expression
Reconciliation of internal conflicts
Mindfulness Skills
Connection with your inner self
Exploration of difficult topics in a distanced way through artmaking and the artwork
Development and increase of self-awareness and coping skills
As well as reducing anxiety, depression, stress and increasing self-esteem.
Art Therapy is not just drawing on a page and filling in mandalas. It is journaling, painting, sculpting, collaging, singing, dancing, writing poetry, and overall the large scope of creation. Art therapy does not depend on someone’s ability to use words to describe their struggles and conflicts.
Instead, it uses artmaking as a tool to bring images in the mind, and their accompanying inner emotional world, out into the open where it can be discussed, explored, and experienced. It promotes the development of dialoguing between different aspects of your consciousness and unconsciousness.
The creative process allows space for new perspectives that language is not always able to access. Art uses metaphor, symbolism, color, and dynamic thoughts to express your experiences in a way some times we don’t have the words for. This is important for those who feel out of touch with their emotions and sense of self.
Because Art Therapy allows you to express feelings through creative work rather than with speech, it’s helpful for those who feel out of touch with their emotions and feelings. If you have difficulty discussing certain topics, art therapy can be beneficial to your therapeutic process and healing.
The Benefits of Art Therapy include:
Developing self-awareness and fostering personal growth
Build trust and compassion in self by challenging perfectionism and inner critic
Empowering individual creativity and tapping into the innate creative ability
Feeling in control while processing challenging experiences
Build more confidence and skills in expressing thoughts and feelings
Improved coping with stress, life transitions and challeneges.
Improve communication, and concentration
Promote Emotional Release by giving a healthy outlet for expressing and letting go of complex emotions
Increase self-esteem, confidence and self-awareness. Art making creating creates a feeling of self-accomplishment improving self appreciation and confidence.
Promotes self discovery through creating by acknowledging and recognize feelings that have been stuck in your subconscious and working through these emotional roadblocks
Relieves stress for body and mind
Studies have shown that creating art stimulates the release of dopamine. This chemical is released when we do something pleasurable, and it generally makes us feel happier. Increased levels of this feel-good neurotransmitter can be very helpful if you are working through anxiety or depression.
How Can Art Therapy Help Me?
Art Therapy has been found to be effective with many neurodiverse issues such as depressive and anxiety disorders, personality disorders, PTSD, eating disorders, and more in reducing and managing symptoms by promoting healing through the creative process.
Anxiety
Art therapy provides a way to gain insight and understanding through self-expression. The fears and other emotions that often accompany anxiety disorder can be hard to express through words alone, so the creative process of art therapy can help you step into these difficult emotions and express them. This allows you to work through your anxiety, rather than the anxiety working through you.
Depression
Art Therapy provides a means of supporting, releasing the symptoms of depression by encouraging you to explore your depression in the entirety of its experience. Depression can bring on the persistent state of “feeling numb” or “incapable of feeling.” Art making provides a mean to “start feeling again”, and gives an empowered voice to that which can be too difficult to speak. As an adaptable form of therapy, art making can take the form that is most accessible to you energetically as well.
Highly Sensitive Person
Art Therapy lends itself to the sensory elements of HSP’s daily experience. It is helpful in managing situations where you feel overwhelmed and struggle to separate your emotions from another persons. It is helpful in managing intense emotions, transitions, and setting healthy boundaries through art making and processing these experiences.
What is an Art Therapy session like? Do I need to be an Artist to do Art Therapy?
You do not need to be an artist to be in Art Therapy. In fact, you never have had to draw anything in your life! Art Therapy is psychotherapy that utilizes artistic expression as one of many therapeutic tools, the most important being you and your lived experience. There is no set way that an art therapy session is conducted as each session is person-centered and unfolds in accordance to your individual needs. However there are certain aspects that are consistent:
The session will be a safe, confidential, trusting and a non-judgmental environment.
There is no pressure to use art materials or utilize art-making in the first session, or any session, as it is your individual session and you choose when, how, and if to incorporate the use of materials.
Although art making can be a nonverbal process it can be useful to reflect on the image in a verbal way with the therapist, but again, this is your choice.
At the beginning of a session, I will invite you to share what’s been going on in your life, what’s been on your mind, the bothersome areas, and whether there are any goals you’d like to discuss. Don’t worry. You don’t have to come prepared with all this! It’s our work to figure it out together! Each session is, essentially, a problem-solving session. You describe your current situation, your feelings about it, and then we work together to assist you in making steps to resolve that problem in a way that empowers you and is alignment with the kind of life you’d like to lead. My goal as a therapist is for you to cultivate self confidence, self expression, and self awareness.
Enjoy this content?
Share it with a friend and follow us on Instagram @enodiatherapies for more like this and to never miss a blog post!
