Art Therapy
enrichment through art-making, creative processing, and human experience
What is art therapy?
As defined by the American Art Therapy Association, Art Therapy is an integrative mental health and human services profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship.
Art Therapy, facilitated by a professional art therapist, effectively supports personal and relational treatment goals as well as community concerns. 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.
no art experience required
heads up…
First and foremost, no art skills or art experience is necessary to participate and benefit from art therapy. You are the expert when it comes to the meaning of your art. I will be here to guide you, encouraging you to use curiosity, mindfulness, and compassion to make space for all parts of you that need to be expressed and to better understand your internal world and experience. If you are new to art making, this is a wonderful opportunity to get acquainted with various art materials and to use the beginner’s mind approach to open up to a new experience.
For clients who are new to using art materials, I like to slowly introduce my clients to the basic art materials and encourage them to take stock of their experience with each art medium. As your familiarity increases, you will eventually build awareness of your preference for materials and sharpen your intuition regarding your needs. You will likely find that your courage and self-confidence of your unique self-expression increases. I look forward to witnessing and supporting your journey of self-expression!
what can I expect from an art therapy session?
EVERY SESSION IS UNIQUE, BUT…
Sometimes words are not able to fully express a person’s experience and with talk therapy an individual can find themselves hitting a block due to psychological defenses. Art Therapy is the use of art materials in a therapeutic setting guided by a trained Art Therapist to explore one’s inner-world, to promote self-expression, and to provide emotional and mental processing and healing. Art therapy can help to bypass defenses, access deep parts of one’s internal world, and offer a robust expression that provides insight and increased self-awareness.
The act of creating something with our hands is therapeutic in and of itself. Using art materials in a therapeutic setting with a trained art therapist supports an individual in increasing self-understanding, promotes emotional resilience, healing, personal growth, and self-empowerment. Art can help us make sense of inner experiences.
