Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.

What is Art Therapy?

Art Therapy is a mental health profession that uses the creation of artwork to express oneself, through exploring emotions and personal conflicts in order to understand both more fully. It not only helps clients understand themselves and their world better, but can also reduce stress, foster self-growth, positive regard for self and develop new skills, all accomplished through creating with art materials.  

Making artwork is therapeutic in and of itself and can help reduce anxiety. It requires a level of mindfulness and allows individuals to distract themselves from life stressors. Making art allows us to connect to a Flow state, which can be so hard to achieve in today's world. This Flow State, allows us to tap into the unconscious part of the brain to shift more easily. Art Therapy is facilitated by a professionally trained Art Therapist, and involves a therapeutic relationship in which collaboration is valued to address the client’s challenges and the work they want to explore. 

Why choose or try Art Therapy?

Talk Therapy can be challenging or intimidating to some people, especially those who are new to therapy, have cultural or personal beliefs that inhibit openness, or for people who struggle to understand and express their emotions. Language can sometimes fail to truly capture the human experience, and the emotional depth that is felt.  

Art Therapy can be a non-threatening way to explore emotions and help the therapist understand the individual’s emotional experience more fully. Children who may not have the cognitive ability to verbalize traumas or their emotions can especially benefit from Art Therapy, where they can express their feelings and concepts that are abstract to them using visual language, which is more comfortable for them developmentally. 

What if you are not an Artist or feel you aren’t artistic?

A person does not have to be an ‘artist’ to engage in Art Therapy. There is no right or wrong way to make art, which is explained in depth to the client early on to reduce any fear or shame a client may experience about creating artwork. Many clients have not created artwork in a long time and this can be a new and vulnerable experience for them. Art Therapists work with clients to help them feel more comfortable in this new way of communicating and letting go of harsh self-judgements. Most clients have a lot of fun during art therapy sessions and groups, allowing themselves to revert to a more playful version of themselves.  

The main goal is to create a confidential and safe space for self-expression. When our expression has been stunted and using your voice feels scary, artmaking can be a great way to heal. An Art Therapist is trained in the therapeutic process, as well as in art materials and how to use specific materials to improve a client’s ability to express themselves. 

What is an Art Therapy session like?

In an Art Therapy session, various art materials will be used such as paints, markers, colored pencils, beads, glue, yarn, and more. Art Therapists are trained to use numerous art materials and can teach clients how to use materials if they are unsure or would like to try something new to them. The focus of the creation of artwork is the more about the process, and not as much on the product, which is quite different than the purpose of creating art in other situations. 

Sometimes we will explore a certain area or theme of your life, while other times you will be able to explore from a space of complete freedom and surrender! 

What happens by creating artwork in an Art Therapy session?

In therapy, the goal is to improve the challenge or conflict the person is being seen for, and a way to do this involves a process of exploring various aspects of the challenge or conflict. Creating art can help a person let down their defenses naturally to allow the therapeutic process to deepen and support more openness. Artwork is viewed as a reflection and extension of the creator. It is used as a tool to help you communicate with the Art Therapist, making it easier to explore and express yourself. 

Creating artwork can also serve to externalize the conflict or challenge, giving them space to exist outside of the body. Often times, pain gets internalized, which can create great emotional weight and long-lasting mental health challenges. By externalizing the events or your feelings, the emotional weight and impact can become lighter and less overwhelming. This process can also help clients ‘let go’ by allowing a client to rip up, tear, and/or destroy the physical artwork as an act of strength and resilience, not allowing the subject of the artwork to have as much emotional significance anymore.  

Art Therapists do not use artwork to diagnose individuals or to assume an issue. Rather, Art Therapists use artwork as a visual to understand the individual’s perspective and which questions to be curious about to facilitate deeper communication. For client’s having a visual item to point to and say, “this is what it feels like,” can help the therapist understand the client’s emotional experience more significantly. 

Can anyone try Art Therapy? Is Art Therapy right for you?

Yes! Art Therapy is for everyone! It is used in a variety of settings including individual sessions, group sessions, in hospitals, wellness centers, private practice, and community centers. This modality can be used with a variety of populations such as Veterans, individuals with physical health complications, those with trauma, patients with eating disorders, and people with family conflicts, to name several.

I am a trained Art Therapist with many years of experience supporting people with mental health struggles or life challenges, such as anxiety, depression, PTSD, grief, relationship challenges, and more…. Sessions can be completed online or in person.