ART THERAPY
What is Art Therapy?
Art Therapy is a form of psychotherapy that extends beyond more traditional talk therapy with a focus on enhancing a client’s mental, emotional and psychosocial wellbeing. It encourages creative exploration, self-expression and self-development in order to drive change and growth.
Art Therapy isn’t about the aesthetic of art-making, it’s about the meaning-making a client can attribute to their own work. This is something that is important for a client to understand, as there is often a misperception that this type of support involves the art therapist psychoanalysing a client’s work.
It’s about trusting the process, leaning into a sense of creativity and play and being open to the potential of learning things about oneself that might otherwise be unknown. It’s about remaining curious to the process and to the outcome.
Amongst many other benefits, research* suggests art therapy can provide therapeutic help in the reduction of mental health issues like anxiety, depression and stress symptoms.
By incorporating art making into your self-enquiry, clients can find their “creative voice”, develop greater self-awareness, and connect with and express thoughts and feelings that may otherwise be difficult to communicate.
Otherwise said, by reflecting on and discussing their artwork and the art making process, clients can:
gain insight and a deeper understanding of their experiences by answering the fundamental question, ‘what else is there to know?’.
reflect on what they’ve made and enquire into their felt response.
further enquire into beliefs, ideas and patterns of thinking/behaving, that may not be consciously known.
help develop new coping strategies to improve well-being.
What can Art Therapy help with?
Manage symptoms of anxiety and depression
Provide techniques to help cope with life’s challenges
Social connection with like-minded people
MENTAL HEALTH
Process specific life events and their impacts on mental health
Develop social and family-based interpersonal relationships
How lived experience can potentially impact our relationships
BETTER UNDERSTAND LIVED EXPERIENCE
Develop a better understanding of identity and how we identify ourselves
Understanding boundaries and what our personal boundaries are
Emotional regulation
SELF AWARENESS
Build self-confidence, self-esteem and self-compassion
Develop better coping mechanisms
Life goal setting
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
How can a client get the best out of Art Therapy?
Be willing to suspend what they “know” about their lived experience & be open to new and/or deeper understandings.
Maintain a sense of playfulness and curiosity when creatively enquiring into lived experience.
Remember that art therapy doesn’t replace ‘talk therapy’, instead it aims to provide alternate ways in which to better make sense of how (and what) we feel.
What does an Art Therapy session look like?
The first session generally looks slightly different to other sessions with the focus being on establishing the relationship with the client, including learning about them, the relevant lived experience they’re hoping to better understand, their expected goals, as well as finding out (or beginning to discover) what art modalities are preferred or best suited to the client.
Subsequent sessions start by checking in with a client, allowing them the time and space to share what’s on their mind or updating what’s been happening for them.
Generally speaking, the style of 1:1 sessions are ‘non-directive’, that being, there’s no “theme” to the session, and no pre-determined processes or art modalities set. Group sessions often have a more ‘directive’ style with a ‘theme’ or ‘topic’ being explored and therapeutic intentions and/or goals being set by the art therapist for clients to then enquire on an individual basis.
I highly value the fact that we’re all individuals and that the way we may want to enquire (especially artistically) into issues/topics that matter the most to us is different. That’s why I strive to ensure a tailored approach to sessions, so that they can be skewed more to talking or to art-making depending on a client’s needs for any given session, with a variety of art materials made available for creative enquiring.
What isn’t Art Therapy?
Art therapy can be thought of as a ‘choose your own adventure’ in terms of what, and how, you enquire into lived experience. However, there are a few misconceptions about what art therapy is and/or what it involves, including that:
you have to be “artistic” in order to participate in art therapy,
it’s about learning art techniques or just general art making, and that
it’s about the therapist psychoanalysing a client’s artwork
Although enquiring into lived experience through art therapy is creatively inclined, it’s not about the aesthetics of art marking. Instead it’s about the meaning-making that a client is able to make from creatively enquiring.
Different modalities can be used, and can be tailored to meet a client’s comfort level when being creative.