What is art therapy?

• Art therapy is a therapeutic technique that is rooted in the idea that creative expression can lend to healing and mental well-being. Art therapy focuses on the creative art making process itself, as therapy or in the analysis of expression gained through an exchange of patient and therapist interaction and connection.

• The psychoanalytic approach (looking at ones past to help heal the present) of art therapy was one of the earliest forms of psychotherapy.

• Psychoanalytic art therapy employs the transference process between the therapist and the client who creates their art. The art therapist interprets not the art it self but how the client relates to their own art and symbolic self expression.

• Many times providing a safe place for the painful issues one is facing the art acts as a containment for that pain. The art acts as a vessel for pulling the pain away from the mind and body and on to what is being created. This process helps one to re-experience emotions in a way that allows them to organize their feelings and form a positive narrative around overwhelming experiences.

• Many times sublimation occurs in the simple act of making and creating works of art where the art begins to speak for itself and lends clues to the client about their own healing and growth.

• Through neuroscience, art therapy locates particular brain areas and activity patterns that are devoted exclusively to art making. Thus, the simple act of making art is healing itself.

• The goal of art therapy is to utilize the creative process to help people explore self-expression and to find new ways to gain personal insight and develop new coping mechanisms.

To learn more visit: American Art Therapy Association and the Art Therapy Credentials Board