What is Art Therapy?

Art therapy draws on both our ancestral propensity towards self-expression, as well as modern psychotherapy. Sometimes art therapy sessions look mostly like art-making, sometimes they may look more like talk-psychotherapy, sometimes they are a simple balance of both. Other times, art therapy sessions can look like something else completely.

Regardless of what a session looks like, art therapy always nurtures a space which encourages self-expression in many forms. These forms may include painting, drawing, talking, using clay, writing or responding to poetry and collage. It could also look like building sculptures with found objects, playing around with shaving cream and food colouring, papier-mâché and mixing materials together to see what happens. The list goes on. 

As art therapists, we gently guide the experience based on where each client-artist desires it to go. There exists no expectation that a client-artist does anything, be anyone, or know “how to make art”. In fact, art therapy can often be more about not taking art too seriously. Instead, we aim to nurture a sense of play and curiosity as we engage with the many different types of materials and colours and textures.

Art therapy is unique in that it can go to places where sometimes words cannot. This is because those experiences which are traumatic or painful for us to remember are kept in the non-verbal part of the brain, where we don’t have access to them. This is why art therapy works directly with emotions and the subconscious. In this way, art therapy can be very effective in growing our awareness around the hidden beliefs we hold, which often influence the way we show up in life: our behaviours, the kinds of relationships we tend to have, our habits, our habitual reactions.

Art therapy is process-orientated, the focus being on exploration in the present moment. Often the shape of a session will emerge naturally as one engages with the materials and with what is present to them. The act of engaging our creative self in a supportive and encouraging environment can very often leave the client-artist empowered and inspired.

The artefacts — the finished art products — can be used in whatever way the client-artist desires: sometimes they inspire reflection, sometimes merely a sense of wonder. Sometimes they lay dormant until a day when they make more sense. Interpretations and diagnoses are never made from art products.