You can call me at: (720) 213-6773
What is Art Therapy?
Art therapy is an integrative mental health profession that combines knowledge and understanding of human development and psychological theories and techniques with visual arts and the creative process to provide a unique approach for helping clients improve psychological health, cognitive abilities, and sensory-motor functions. Art therapists use art media, and often the verbal processing of produced imagery, to help people resolve conflicts and problems, develop interpersonal skills, manage behavior, reduce stress, increase self-esteem and self-awareness, and achieve insight. (What is Art Therapy?, arttherapy.org, 2016).
Art therapy uses non-verbal, often visual, ways of communicating. It can be helpful when you find it difficult to express yourself fully using words. Art can access different parts of the brain, create new connections in the brain, and help to use your other senses when processing your feelings.
Art therapists will often use a variety of ways to assist with self-expression including symbolic play, role-play, and music. What I love about Art Therapy is that there are no mistakes, there is no such thing as being a "bad artist" or making "bad art" and there is no right or wrong way to create. The process of making the art can be just as therapeutic as expereincing the finished product.
What you can expect from an Art Therapy session is to be presented with an opportunity to express yourself using something other than your speaking voice. You will be asked to try something new or you will be given materials for you to decide what you want to do with them. I might ask you to tell me about what you made and what it was like for you to make it. I like to keep it simple when it comes to my individual work using Art Therapy. I prefer to use easily accessible materials like colored pencils, watercolor paints, crayons, and oil pastels in addition to found objects, paper collage, and air dry modeling clay. Art Therapy can help with organizing your thoughts and feelings, it can help to uncover things that seem hidden to you, and it can help to solidify what you have come to understand about yourself by creating a concrete representation of your emotional state. The best part is that it can be relaxing and even fun.
What is Art Therapy?
Art therapy is an integrative mental health profession that combines knowledge and understanding of human development and psychological theories and techniques with visual arts and the creative process to provide a unique approach for helping clients improve psychological health, cognitive abilities, and sensory-motor functions. Art therapists use art media, and often the verbal processing of produced imagery, to help people resolve conflicts and problems, develop interpersonal skills, manage behavior, reduce stress, increase self-esteem and self-awareness, and achieve insight. (What is Art Therapy?, arttherapy.org, 2016).
Art therapy uses non-verbal, often visual, ways of communicating. It can be helpful when you find it difficult to express yourself fully using words. Art can access different parts of the brain, create new connections in the brain, and help to use your other senses when processing your feelings.
Art therapists will often use a variety of ways to assist with self-expression including symbolic play, role-play, and music. What I love about Art Therapy is that there are no mistakes, there is no such thing as being a "bad artist" or making "bad art" and there is no right or wrong way to create. The process of making the art can be just as therapeutic as expereincing the finished product.
What you can expect from an Art Therapy session is to be presented with an opportunity to express yourself using something other than your speaking voice. You will be asked to try something new or you will be given materials for you to decide what you want to do with them. I might ask you to tell me about what you made and what it was like for you to make it. I like to keep it simple when it comes to my individual work using Art Therapy. I prefer to use easily accessible materials like colored pencils, watercolor paints, crayons, and oil pastels in addition to found objects, paper collage, and air dry modeling clay. Art Therapy can help with organizing your thoughts and feelings, it can help to uncover things that seem hidden to you, and it can help to solidify what you have come to understand about yourself by creating a concrete representation of your emotional state. The best part is that it can be relaxing and even fun.