Art therapy is a technique that helps people heal their mental wounds and find peace through creative expression. Unfortunately, its effectiveness is still doubted by many of those who haven’t tried it, so it needs more highlight.
This type of therapy helps people communicate, express their true feelings and struggles, explore and analyze their personalities and experiences. The sessions not only include the process of creating art, but also a number of other psychotherapeutic methods.
Art therapy is suitable for people of any nationality, educational background, occupation, or age, and this is what makes it so unique. If applied properly, it can help you improve your physical, mental, and emotional condition, healing you from traumatic experiences and psychological disorders.
When Art Therapy Can Help
Here are some of the cases when art therapy (combined with group therapy and such) may help:
- Clients (kids or adults) with classic mental health conditions
- Children with social or behavioral issues at school or kindergarten
- Adults suffering from constant severe stress and pressure
- Children suffering from learning disabilities
- Clients (kids and adults) who have suffered a brain damage
- Clients (kids and adults) who have suffered psychological trauma
People of all ages who have ever had/experienced domestic violence, depression, anxiety disorder, or any other trauma may find healing and relief in art therapy. It includes painting, drawing, sculpting, and other kinds of creative art, helping people open up about their problems.
They express so much through art, as all humans have been doing for thousands of years. Any work of art that we see in one or another way describes the condition the author was in at the moment or creating it. And it was only in the XX century that psychologists have noticed how it can be made a therapy.
How It’s Different from a Simple Art Class
Specialists in the field say that during an art class, the students learn certain techniques of drawing and painting, but mostly through copying something from the outside world. During art therapy sessions, they also learn more about the process of creating art itself, but their tutors get the pictures out of their minds, not from the outside world. Those pictures can show a big part of the emotional struggle of a client, and going from there, the healing may begin.
The most important part is to open up, and it’s usually the most difficult part as well. Creating art opens another channel for communication, which has already helped thousands of people find peace.
