Art Therapy, facilitated by a professional art therapist, effectively supports personal and relational treatment goals as well as community concerns.
What is
ART THERAPY?
According to the American Art Therapy Association (2017), Art Therapy is an integrative mental health and human services profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active artmaking, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship.
Art therapy involves the use of different visual art media such as paints, color pencils, collage, clay, beads and more to engage in a therapeutic and healing process. Art therapy is an effective treatment for persons experiencing developmental, medical, educational or psychological impairment. A key goal in art therapy is to improve or restore the client's functioning and his/her sense of personal well-being.
Art Therapy is used to:
+ Improve cognitive and sensory-motor functions
+ Foster self-esteem and self-awareness
+ Cultivate emotional resilience
+ Promote insight
+ Enhance social skills
+ Reduce and resolve conflicts and distress
+ And advance societal and ecological change
How is Art
Therapy different?
Through integrative methods, art therapy engages the mind, body, and spirit in ways that are distinct from verbal articulation alone. Kinesthetic, sensory, perceptual, and symbolic opportunities invite alternative modes of receptive and expressive communication, which can circumvent the limitations of language. Art therapy uses art media, the creative process and the resulting artwork as a therapeutic and healing process.
Who are
Art Therapists?
Art Therapists are Masters-level clinicians who work with people of all ages across a broad spectrum of practice. Guided by ethical standards and scope of practice, their education and supervised training prepares them for culturally proficient work with diverse populations in a variety of settings.
Who can
participate in
Art Therapy?
Individuals across age groups can benefit from Art Therapy. No previous artistic ability or experience with art materials is necessary. The focus in an Art Therapy session is on the creative process to promote healing and NOT the technique or product.
How can
Art Therapy
benefit you?
Art Therapy has many intrinsic advantages since it offers the opportunity to - externalize stress, engage in catharsis, develop coping skills, promote relaxation, develop insight and experience positive emotions, while engaging in creative exploration. Art Therapy offers the benefit of integrating established therapeutic techniques including mindfulness, cognitive behavioral therapy and relaxation. It augments these techniques by providing a more powerful (visual) language of expression. Just like traditional psychotherapy, individual art therapy sessions can be designed to be short-term or long-term to suit the needs of the client.
Interested In
Learning More?
The American Art Therapy Association
https://arttherapy.org/about-art-therapy/
https://arttherapy.org/
5 Quick Facts about Art Therapy
https://www.psychologytoday.com/sites/default/files/attachments/231/five-quickfactsaboutarttherapy.pdf