So, what exactly is Art Therapy?!
Written by Emily Paris, Registered Psychotherapist and Certified Art Therapist
Art therapy is a counselling modality that lives at the intersection of creative expression and psychotherapy. It can help regulate our nervous system, process emotion, deepen self-awareness, and build resilience.
Let’s be honest, we humans are complicated little onions with complex and nuanced inner landscapes. So, finding the words to express how we feel isn’t always easy. By expressing what cannot be spoken through creative channels, and engaging the embodied experience of art making, art therapy provides a therapeutic safe space to work through our growth and healing.
Art therapy is an embodied experience.
Research shows that when we are engaged in art making, our nervous system’s relaxation response is activated, reducing stress and cortisol levels. When this happens, we can shift out of the fight/flight/freeze/fawn responses and into a space that feels calm and grounding. Creative expression is an incredible tool for self-soothing and reducing stress in our body.
Art therapy is about authentically expressing what’s inside of us, without judgement.
It’s not about making a pretty picture or mastering a new artistic skill. It’s about allowing ourselves to freely express the complex, beautiful and sometimes confusing inner world of our human experience. In art therapy, we lean into the creative process, whether that’s through dance, music, drawing, painting or other forms of art. We give a voice to, and externalize, our emotions, which helps to process and release the weight they carry within us. The art itself becomes a symbolic container where we can express our greatest fears, worries, sadness and dreams. The art helps us hold what can feel too heavy to bare.
Art therapy supports emotional processing.
In the book titled Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle (2020), Emily and Amelia Nagoski describe emotions as tunnels that have a beginning, middle and an end. If we allow ourselves to experience our emotions fully (a.k.a. walk through to the end of the tunnel where the light is), they will naturally recede. The tricky part, however, is that we tend to get stuck in the tunnel somewhere. This stuckness can happen for a few reasons: 1) we are continuously being faced with the stressor that activates the emotion, 2) we struggle to tap into a place where we can freely express/explore the emotional tunnel, or 3) because some tunnels feel too overwhelming to face alone. That’s where the art comes in. Art therapy helps us walk through to the end of the tunnel, where we can find relief and wholeness. It does this by providing a space where you can safely express and explore your inner world, with the guidance of a trained professional with expertise in both art and counseling psychology.
Art therapy supports flow.
Have you ever experienced a moment when you are so intently absorbed in a task that you feel a sense of peace and fluidity between your mind and body? That’s called the flow state. It’s the optimal state of human experience. When you’re making art you can tap into the flow state where your worries are suspended, becoming fully immersed in the present moment.
Art therapy can support folks of all ages, facing a wide range of experiences such as anxiety, grief, depression, post-traumatic stress and more. If you’re interested in exploring art therapy, reach out to Aruma or check our upcoming ArumaTalks art therapy workshop.
Sources:
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: the psychology of optimal experience. New York, Harper & Row.
Elbrecht, C., Antcliff, L.R. (2014). Being touched through touch. Trauma treatment through
haptic perception at the clay field: A sensorimotor art therapy. International Journal of Art
Therapy. 19(1), 19-30.
Hinz, L. (2009). The expressive therapies continuum. New York, NY: Routledge.
Kaimal, G., Ray, K., and Muniz, J. (2016). Reduction of cortisol levels and participants’ responses following art making. Art Ther. 33, 74–80.
Levine, P.A. (2010). In an unspoken voice: How the body releases trauma and restores
goodness. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.
Malchiodi, C.A. (2003). Handbook of art therapy. New York: Guilford Publications.
Nagoski, Emily, and Amelia Nagoski. BURNOUT : The Secret to Solving the Stress Cycle. S.L., Vermilion, 2020.
McNiff, S. (2004). Art heals: How creativity cures the soul. Boulder, CO: Shambhala
Publications.