Powerful Art Therapy Examples for Emotional Growth
What is art therapy?
Drawing Therapy: 7 Art Therapy Techniques to Relieve Stress
The phrase “art therapy” is often thrown around to describe art as therapy, but there’s also a type of psychotherapy called art therapy.
According to the Art Therapy Credentials Board, Inc. (ATCB), “art therapy uses art media, the creative process, and the resulting artwork as a therapeutic and healing process.”
Anyone can use art as a form of self-care, mindfulness practice, or a way to cope with stress. But in art therapy, you’re typically working with a trained mental health professional to manage symptoms and conditions — often working on issues that are harder to express in words, like trauma.
Essentially, art therapy is art plus psychotherapy.
Written by: Jacquelyn Johnson, PsyD
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Breakthroughs: When Doodling Becomes Therapy
Gayle Kraus is a veteran middle school visual arts teacher at Piccowaxen Middle School in Charles County. Her mantra is that art stimulates the mind to see new worlds and possibilities and is a pathway to meditation and self-healing.
When learning the ins and outs of this new normal, I referenced back to all the professional development I attended where the common thread was mindfulness and meditation. As an art teacher, I take advantage of the same art therapy moments I provide for my students. I tell them that the technology I prefer is a pencil and paper, with the advanced technology of markers, pens, ink, paint, crayon, pastels, and other creative tools.
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How to use art and drawing as therapy
Drawing Therapy: 7 Art Therapy Techniques to Relieve Stress
- Prepare. Grab your supplies, whatever that may be. You can start with a blank piece of paper, plus any pens, pencils, or markers.
- Find your space. Sit down in a space where you can (hopefully) have at least 20 minutes to yourself.
- Set your timer and breathe. You can set a timer for 20 to 60 minutes, though you may want to start with 20 and work your way up. If you want to add some mindfulness, once you hit start, begin with a few deep breaths (5 or 10) to ground yourself in the moment.
- Draw. Try to be present while you draw, and remember: There’s no judgment here. You can scribble circles for 20 minutes if you want — it doesn’t need to be museum-worthy.
Written by: Jacquelyn Johnson, PsyD
Visit Psych Central to Learn MoreDifferent Strokes: Art & Photo Therapy Promote Healing
Photo therapy is an offshoot of art therapy using people’s personal snapshots, family albums, and photos taken by others (and the feelings, memories, thoughts, beliefs, and values these pictures evoke)—during therapy or counseling practices conducted by licensed therapists. The techniques deepen and improve patients’ insight, understanding, and relationships with others, in ways that words alone cannot do. (Photo art therapy is a subfield, practiced by individuals with additional specialized training in art therapy.)
Not limited to paper, photo therapy techniques can be used with any photographic imagery--including digital/electronic formats, videos, DVDs, and films.
Written by: Barbara Trainin Blank
Visit The New Social Worker to Learn MoreDefining Dance/Movement Therapy (DMT)
What is Dance/Movement Therapy?
Dance/movement therapy (DMT)
is defined by the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) as the psychotherapeutic use of movement to promote emotional, social, cognitive, and physical integration of the individual, for the purpose of improving health and well-being.
Dance/Movement Therapy Relies on the Following Premises:
- Movement is a language, our first language. Nonverbal and movement communication begins in utero and continues throughout the lifespan. Dance/movement therapists believe that nonverbal language is as important as verbal language and use both forms of communication in the therapeutic process.
- Mind, body, and spirit are interconnected.
- Movement can be functional, communicative, developmental, and expressive. Dance/movement therapists observe, assess, and intervene by looking at movement, through these lenses, as it emerges in the therapeutic relationship in the therapeutic session.
- Movement is both an assessment tool and a primary mode of intervention.
Written by: American Dance Therapy Association Staff
Visit American Dance Therapy Association to Learn MoreMandala Art Therapy
Every art therapist seems to love mandalas and the effect they often have on clients. Mandala is a Sanskrit word from India that means, “disk” or “circle”. It is often expressed as a symbolic pattern usually in a form of a circle divided into four or more separate sections. Creating such a graphic symbol allows you to focus your attention on the self, the sacred or the universe.
Jung found that drawing mandalas had a calming effect on patients while at the same time facilitating some form of integration. Mandala drawing was viewed as a creative means of traumatic disclosure that would symbolically organise and integrate emotions and experiences, while serving the same function as writing a narrative.
Native american's use the same techniques it's called sand painting.
Written by: Robert Gray
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8 Types of Art Therapy To Help Your Clients
Painting
Painting can involve a free form approach of creating images from a blank canvas or it can involve using tools to help construct and manipulate images. Painting in art therapy involves acrylic paints, watercolours, spray painting and more.
Written by: Art Therapy Resources Staff
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Overview
Music Therapy
What is music therapy?
Music therapy is the use of music and/or elements of music (like sound, rhythm and harmony) to accomplish goals, like reducing stress or improving quality of life.
Healthcare providers use music as therapy in many contexts, including at the bedside for people in hospitals. However, music therapy isn’t the same as listening to music to help you relax. Music can certainly be a powerful tool for calming and healing. But the definition of clinical musical therapy states that a qualified music therapist must plan and lead the session within a therapeutic relationship for it to qualify as this form of treatment.
Written by: Cleveland Clinic Staff
Visit Cleveland Clinic to Learn MoreWhat to know about drama therapy
Drama therapy is a form of psychotherapy. It involves using drama and theatre techniques to help people resolve conflicts and problems. It may also allow individuals to develop self-awareness, express emotions, and improve relationships.
Drama therapy works for individuals, groups, or family settings. Therapists may use it in conjunction with other forms of therapy, such as cognitive behavioral therapy or psychodynamic psychotherapy.
Written by: Zia Sherrell, MPH
Visit Medical News Today to Learn MoreTop Ten Art Therapy Visual Journaling Prompts
Visual journaling (aka art journaling) has a long history in the field of art therapy, particularly as an approach to assist recovery from trauma or loss and as a form of stress reduction. Carl Jung is often considered to be the art therapy “poster person” for visual journaling because he maintained a regular practice of visual journaling. He generally created small circular drawings that he believed corresponded to his inner feelings and the archetypal realm of the collective unconscious.
In the tradition of the Top Ten Coolest Art Therapy Interventions, here is a list of the more popular visual journaling prompts [in no particular order] used in art therapy, followed by some general guidelines for applying these strategies to your own self-expression and exploration:
- How Do You Feel Today?
- Spontaneous Imagery
- Non-Dominant Hand Drawing
- Working Within a Circle
- Dream Journal
- Photocollage Journal
- Doodle Diary
- Intention Journal
- Altered Book
- Create Your Own Approach
Written by: Cathy Malchiodi, PhD
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