What is Art Therapy?
Art therapy is a regulated and integrative mental health profession that combines the use of art materials and techniques, the creative process, and verbal therapy approaches. No experience or training in art is necessary to benefit - you only need the willingness to express yourself. The focus is on the therapeutic process of art making and reflection, and not on the artistic skill or final art product (like it would be in an art education class). Through this experience of visual self-expression, people are able to explore and develop their identity, gain self-awareness, have a healthy outlet for emotions, and cope better with stress.
Art therapy is a mind-body therapeutic process that is informed by neuroscience and psychotherapy. It can serve as a symbolic form of communication for those with difficulties in verbal expression and it can be a reflective experience for the over-thinker. By using art therapy, we are able to stimulate the brain in areas that are inaccessible by verbal stimulation alone and the process can strengthen targeted neural networks. Art can be an invaluable tool in therapy since a person’s expressive non-verbal communications reveal both the conscious and unconscious, developmental level, personality, abilities, thoughts and feelings.
Why Should I Make Art? What Are the Benefits?
- Making art stimulates your brain to grow - by doing something novel/outside your normal routine, you create and reactivate neural connections in the brain. Creating stimulates and stretches the brain, making it more flexible.
- Making art is a healthy coping and stress management skill - the art process requires your full attention so while you're engaged in a creative flow state, you release and create space between you and the stress. Less stress enables us to develop better coping strategies and solutions.
- Making art provides you with a different way to communicate and express yourself - sometimes words are not enough. Alternative communication enables new neural connections in the brain as well as a deeper understanding of the self.
- Making art helps you learn to tolerate distressing feelings - the art process itself is a valuable lesson in emotional regulation. Art teaches us to "allow" and sit with difficult feelings, and also to expand our creativity and problem-solving skills.
- Making art boosts self esteem and helps you build a healthy identity - creating art also comes with a sense of accomplishment, which empowers us. As a result, fears are reduced and confidence is boosted.
- Making art calms the body and improves fine motor skills - the physical benefits include lowering heart rate and blood pressure, which enables us to enter a state of relaxed creativity. And using scissors, weaving string, threading beads and scultping all improve the coordination of small muscles in movements.
- Making art improves memory - the repetitive nature of some art processes, like knitting and weaving, helps the brain create pathways for the pattern and the repetition enhances the memory.
- Making art helps you complete the stress cycle - all biological processes have a beginning, middle and end. Often when we start the stress response (fight/flight/freeze mode), we end up stuck in it. Cortisol and adrenaline spike, blood pressure rises and digestion slows, and the stress response remains in chronic activation. Making art provides a cathartic release and releasing the stress is imperative for completing the cycle and returning to a state of rest.
*A 2016 study by Kaimal et al, entitled Reduction of Cortisol Levels and Participants' Responses Following Art Making found that making art can significantly reduce stress levels, regardless of artistic talent or experience.
What is an art therapist?
Art therapists are master's-level, licensed mental health professionals trained in art making, psychology and art psychotherapy. They are skilled in the application of a variety of art modalities used in treatment and assessment. The Art Therapy Credentials Board provides national credentialing for art therapists (www.atcb.org).
In Texas, "Art Therapist" is a protected title where only professionals who have the designated LPC-AT license can refer to themselves as art therapists.
What kinds of art supplies are used in art therapy?
Art media/techniques that may be used includes drawing, sketching, doodling, pencils, markers, gel pens, crayons, oil pastels, chalk pastels, acrylic and watercolor paint, glue paint, paint sticks, fluid/pour painting, collage, magazine images, sculpture, airdry and bake-able clay, plaster, masks, boxes, found/upcycled/repurposed objects, mosaic, stamps, stickers, altered books, journaling, writing, poetry, lyrics, and dialogue.
For more information, see the American Art Therapy Association website: www.arttherapy.org
