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What Is Art Therapy?

Art therapy combines talking with creative art making to help you explore your emotions, navigate life’s challenges, regulate your nervous system, reconnect with your body, and strengthen your sense of self. Working collaboratively with your art therapist, you’ll be guided through the exploration of your thoughts, emotions, and experiences in a safe and supportive environment that encourages healing and personal growth.

Art therapy is accessible to people of all ages and abilities. The creative process can be restorative, enjoyable, and expressive, offering another way to understand yourself and work toward your therapeutic goals.

What to expect in an art therapy session

Initial Check-in

Art therapy sessions typically begin with verbal or creative check-in or mindfulness exercises such as deep breathing, visualizations or body scans. This time is allotted to helping the client settle in and orient to the space as well as to get a better understanding of where the client is at that particular day. This time can also be used for discussing anything that came up from the previous session or to define therapeutic goals. During the check-in, client are invited to pay close attention to the sensations in their body while engaging with the art materials. 

The art making

Art therapists typically use unstructured or structured art interventions with clients. In unstructured art-making, the client leads the art making process, they decide on what art materials they will use and what to themes to explore, while in structured art-making the client is given prompts or directives by the art therapist which help to guide the creative process and are given specific art materials to use. Sometimes art-making can take up the majority of the therapy session or it can be brief or even skipped all together depending on what is needed most by the client that particular day. The role of the art therapist is to move at the client’s pace, to be witness to the creative process, and to create a safe enough environment for deep inner work to take place. Sometimes the art therapist makes art alongside the client or even collaborates with the client on a specific project keeping in mind the therapeutic goals and particular needs of the client. Finally, the art making process can be silent or talkative depending on the client’s needs that day. 

However, it is important to note that our emotions do not only exist in the mind; they also live within the body. Stress may appear as tension in the shoulders, tightness in the chest, shallow breathing, fatigue, or restlessness. Our bodies often recognize what we need before our minds are ready to acknowledge it. 

When we slow down and become more present, we create space to notice these signals with compassion rather than judgment and in doing so we can understand the messages they’re trying to send.

Discussion period


After the art making, the art therapist might engage the client in discussion and verbal processing, where the client is invited to talk about their artwork, their process, and whatever emotions, experiences, needs and goals that came up during the art making. The discussion can be led by the art therapist who can provide verbal prompts to help guide the client in talking about their art or this process can be unstructured/led by the client. Again, decisions are made based on the art therapist’s understanding of the client’s needs, therapeutic goals, abilities, developmental stage and interests. 

Check-out or closing activity

Most art therapy sessions involve a “check-out” or closing activity. These activities help to create containment in sessions and a sense of consistency. Rituals like check-ins and check-outs are important for creating feelings of safety in sessions, which is something important when working with clients who have experienced trauma. The check-out is also used to review the session, plan ahead, and/or transition from the session back to their everyday life. 

The check-out is also used to review the session, plan ahead, and/or transition from the session back to their everyday life. 

Art therapy is…

  • Multisensorial
  • Individualized, collaborative
  • Action and strength-based
  • Experimental, playful and creative 
  • Trauma-informed
  • Nervous-system based
  • Culturally-sensitve 

 

Art Therapy can help clients in many ways. Here are some areas where clients can benefit:

  • Reduce pain in the body and symptoms of burnout
  • Reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression
  • boost self-esteem and self-compassion
  • Strengthen decision-making and problem-solving skills
  • Improve emotional regulation skills
  • promote healthy coping skills
  • Process social challenges
  • Help with identity formation 
  • Identifie clients’ strengths
  • Explore emotions
  • Build confidence
  • Increase self-awareness

 

Art therapy for trauma survivors

  • Oftentimes people who have experienced trauma, have difficulty making sense of fragmented memories and sensations. Art therapy can help clients access implicit memories through the non-verbal act of art making. 
  • Trauma can cause people to lose ability to connect or recall events. Art making can provide clients with an outlet for expressing their emotions and experiences without needing to put things into words.
  • Art making like painting, drawing and molding clay is relaxing, enjoyable and tactile. These activities can help clients access the visual and sensory regions of their brains where trauma memories are often located.
  • Art therapy can encourage clients to make personal and creative decisions which can be an especially empowering and healing experience for trauma survivors who might not have felt such agency previously in their lives. 
  • Clients can externalize challenging emotions and experiences through the art work. This can help create a safe, physical distance from overwhelming traumatic memories.
  • The physical and sensory act of art making reduces stress hormones and can calm psychophysiological arousal in the body.
  • Bilateral art making or using both hands in sweeping motions can help to stimulate both brain hemispheres which can help to organize fragmented memories and calm the body.

Whether you’re just beginning your healing journey or looking for a new approach, we’re here to help. Reach out today to book a free consultation and learn how we can support you.

 

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