Exploring The Therapeutic Potential of Art and It’s Impact on Mental Health
Using art for therapeutic purposes is often overlooked as just a fun activity, or a kids play therapy technique. This myth often prevents clinicians from trying out art based techniques with adults, and it prevents clients from having access to an incredibly healing coping skill.
I often use art based therapeutic activities to help adolescent and adult clients with managing anxiety, depression, ADHD, ASD, and even processing life-long trauma. The effectiveness of including art in treatment is clear to me by the changes I get to witness in my client’s lives.
We know that doing any creative activity can help neuroplasticity, allowing us to develop neural pathway connections and see the world from a new perspective. There is a robust body of research around art therapy where the benefits of any art based activity have been proven in different populations including veterans and people being treated with EMDR (Morgan & Johnson, 1995; Tripp, 2007).
When we feel safe in our environment, we thrive in curiosity and creativity. Therefore, if we allow ourselves to be creative and express ourselves and process traumas through art, we nudge our nervous system to regulate to a grounded and calm environment, which in turn will help us feel a step closer to safety.
If you’re interested in using creativity/art-based activities in therapy, please reach out and include this in your inquiry or at any point during your therapy experience!
References
Morgan, C. A., & Johnson, D. R. (1995). Use of a Drawing Task in the Treatment of Nightmares in Combat-Related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Art Therapy, 12(4), 244–247.
Tripp, T. (2007). A Short Term Therapy Approach to Processing Trauma: Art Therapy and Bilateral Stimulation. Art Therapy, 24(4), 176–183.
