What is Art Therapy?
Art Therapy is a mental health profession that combines the process of creative art expression with models of counselling and psychotherapy to enhance emotional, physical, and mental health and well being.
*While there are benefits to art education and working in the art studio, art therapy involves releasing pre-conceived ideas and allowing the inner psyche opportunity to have a voice in a visual way. In art education individuals are seeking to improve their conceptual ideas and technical skills with materials. This process can inhibit the natural responses that occur with art materials in art therapy. In the art studio, artists are creating artwork for varied reasons, which may include exploring inner emotions, however art therapy is done in the presence of a trained art therapist who can help facilitate growth and understanding while supporting emotional safety.
What Art Therapy is not:
Art Therapy is a mental health profession that combines the process of creative art expression with models of counselling and psychotherapy to enhance emotional, physical, and mental health and well being.
- Art therapy is a means of self-expression.
- It is visual language (language that does not rely upon written or oral presentations).
- Art therapy holds the capacity for deep complexity and refined simplicity.
- Art therapy supports meaning-making through metaphoric symbols, narratives, and imagery.
- Art therapy is facilitated with an trained Art Therapist who can help deepen the process, the emotional exploration and growth, support change and the development of new understanding while maintaining a safe therapeutic environment.
*While there are benefits to art education and working in the art studio, art therapy involves releasing pre-conceived ideas and allowing the inner psyche opportunity to have a voice in a visual way. In art education individuals are seeking to improve their conceptual ideas and technical skills with materials. This process can inhibit the natural responses that occur with art materials in art therapy. In the art studio, artists are creating artwork for varied reasons, which may include exploring inner emotions, however art therapy is done in the presence of a trained art therapist who can help facilitate growth and understanding while supporting emotional safety.
What Art Therapy is not:
- Art therapy is not art education (it is not art lessons).
- Art therapy is not art studio time to create "a landscape for over the couch."