What is art therapy? As an art therapist, do you only do therapy with artists? Or, one of my favorite questions, how does a painting do therapy?
Art therapy is a form of therapy that integrates the creative process in helping to develop self-awareness, gain insight, and increase one’s ability to manage, regulate, or overcome. It utilizes the process of creating art, whether it be drawing, painting, sculpting, or the like, to articulate, or create, what cannot be said. There are times that the words just do not come, they are hiding, or being hidden, from others, or from yourself. When you can’t find the words, maybe you can find the visual representation of how it affects you.
When someone is feeling depressed, the word “depressed” or “depression” may not accurately describe how they are feeling. But pair the expression “I am depressed” with an image of how they are experiencing their depression, then the feeling is externalized and no longer a label. The label can be attributed to the art. “This is what my depression feels like. This is what it looks like when I feel depressed.”
The physical process of creating the art can be a means for which the individual can gain awareness about what they are feeling, they can develop a way in which to better articulate how they are feeling, or even how to better regulate, manage or even overcome these feelings.
Art is a process. Creating art is a process. Art therapy is about the process, and not the product. Art therapy allows for a creative means to process emotions, process frustrations, process challenges. We often work to develop the perfect way to articulate verbally what we are thinking or feeling. What happens when those words fail us? These are opportunities that creating an image can facilitate your expression.
