What is Art Therapy?

Art therapy is a form of expressive therapy that uses both psychological theory and the creative process of making art to improve a person's mental, physical, and emotional well-being. It is better defined as psychotherapy that also utilizes the arts. My Art Therapy approach is founded on Integrative Creative Art Therapies, which utilize both Jungian Art Therapy and Somatic Art Therapy.

Art Therapy is not just drawing on a page and filling in mandalas. It is journaling, painting, sculpting, collaging, singing, dancing, writing poetry, and overall the large scope of creation. Art therapy does not depend on someone’s ability to use words to describe their struggles and conflicts. 

Instead, it uses artmaking as a tool to bring thoughts, memories, experiences, and struggles in the mind, and their accompanying inner emotional world, out into the open where it can be discussed, explored, and experienced.  This allows for the ability to dialogue between different aspects of your consciousness and unconsciousness leading to healing.

Art uses metaphor, symbolism, color, and dynamic thoughts to express your experiences in a way some times we don’t have the words for. This is important for those who feel out of touch with their emotions and sense of self. If you have difficulty discussing certain topics, art therapy can be beneficial to your therapeutic process and healing.

The Benefits of Art Therapy include:

• Developing self-awareness, increasing self esteem, confidence and fostering personal growth

• Build trust and compassion in self by challenging perfectionism and inner critic

• Empowering individual creativity and tapping into the innate creative ability

• Build more confidence and skills in expressing thoughts and feelings

• Improved coping with stress, life transitions, and challenges

• Promote emotional release by giving a healthy outlet for expressing and letting go of complex emotions

• Promotes self-discovery through creating by acknowledging and recognizing feelings that have been stuck in your subconscious and working through emotional blockages

• Relieves stress for body and mind

How Can Art Therapy Help Me?

Art Therapy has been found to be effective in reducing and managing symptoms of depressive and anxiety disorders, personality disorders, PTSD, chronic pain, & eating disorders by promoting healing through the creative process.

How I Work as an Art Therapist

I tailor my approach to each client’s needs, often pulling from more than one therapeutic style for any individual. I tend to incorporate Jungian Art Therapy, Somatic Art Therapy, Integrated Family Systems Therapy, and Gestalt Therapy techniques in combination with Art Therapy as I have found that to be the most effective for clients in their therapeutic process. Somatic Art Therapy incoporates body awareness, and releasing trapped emotions in the body through art expression. Jungian Art Therapy promotes the inner exploration of internal symbols and metaphors, while Internal Family Systems encourages you to create connection and acknowledgement between the different parts of yourself that may be in conflict, while Gestalt promotes skills to have dialogue through distancing yourself from the emotion or issue between those different aspects. The combination of all these techniques can lead to profound healing. 

What is Jungian Art Therapy?

In Jungian Art Therapy we use art materials to stitch together a psyche that has been cut off from its instincts and connection to the self. Spontaneous painting, or collage will help the process of building inner connections and uncovering what is nonverbal, or hidden within the psyche. We explore associations, metaphors and symbols to explore and understand the self through a collective unconscious, archetypal and active imagination lens. This give us more knowledge about our inner world and inner self.

What is Somatic Art Therapy?

Somatic Art Therapy uses art therapy techniques to identify, heal, and move pain, trauma, trapped emotion, or joy in the body.

It is based on using the body as a guide to integrating all aspects of ourselves and breakthrough blockages into a state of wellness. In Somatic Art Therapy we use movement, body awareness, mindfulness, ritual, and art-making to help heal what is held within the body’s inner knowing. This is helpful for releasing trapped traumatic memories or experiences in the body.

In Somatic Art Therapy:

• We work to cultivate body awareness which involves respecting our senses, sensations, and our breath.

• We develop a dialogue with our Embodied Cognition, which is the belief that the body has its own form of understanding, knowing, and experiencing.

• Throughout the therapeutic process and creativity, our bodies give input in how this arouses emotion, memories, sensations, and actions within the body. We use this information to recognize patterns, feelings, and actions that we take in response to our environment, and lived experience.

• We cultivate respect for our bodies' needs, such as relaxation, movement, ease, or hunger by turning inwards and developing skills to respond and meet the body's needs.

What is an Art Therapy session like? Do I need to be an Artist to do Art Therapy?

You do not need to be an artist to be in Art Therapy. In fact, you never have had to draw anything in your life! Art Therapy is psychotherapy that utilizes artistic expression as one of many therapeutic tools, the most important being you and your lived experience. There is no set way that an art therapy session is conducted as each session is person-centered and unfolds in accordance to your individual needs. However there are certain aspects that are consistent: 

• The session will be a safe, confidential, trusting and a non-judgmental environment.

• There is no pressure to use art materials or utilize art-making in the first session, or any session, as it is your individual session and you choose when, how, and if to incorporate the use of materials.

• Although art making can be a nonverbal process it can be useful to reflect on the image in a verbal way with the therapist, but again, this is your choice.

• At the beginning of a session, I will invite you to share what’s been going on in your life, what’s been on your mind, the bothersome areas, and whether there are any goals you’d like to discuss. Don’t worry. You don’t have to come prepared with all this! It’s our work to figure it out together! Each session is, essentially, a problem-solving session. You describe your current situation, your feelings about it, and then we work together to assist you in making steps to resolve that problem in a way that empowers you and is alignment with the kind of life you’d like to lead. My goal as a therapist is for you to cultivate self confidence, self expression, and self awareness.

You can find more helpful information about starting therapy at:

What Do I Do if I have Anxiety About Getting Help for My Anxiety?

New to Therapy? and What to Ask Yourself Before Starting Therapy