What is arts therapy exactly?

 Today I find myself blog-blocked. I'm not sure what to write about so I thought I might talk about what arts therapy is and is not. I will sprinkle this blog post with some of the art I made during my uni progress for your viewing pleasure and to break up all the writing.

A clay creation while listening to music.

So first up let me tell you that arts therapy is not adult colouring-in books. I am by no means dissing adult colouring-in books, I LOVE them. They are great and can be a useful tool, especially if you use them with intent. You could come at them with the intention to meditate while you colour, become very mindful with the colouring, practice your breathing while you colour, practice letting go of your to-do list or even use it as a way to puzzle out a dilemma while you colour with the intention of untangling whatever it is that has you all twisted up inside. Used that way, it can very much be art therapy for sure but just sitting there and colouring in is not art therapy.

Some sandtray play where you choose the pieces first. It wasn't until after I had set them up that I realised it was me and my three kids! Completely unintentional.

Arts therapy is not drawing something and having a therapist interpret your drawing. An art therapist cannot look at your drawing and know what it says about you. At best they can make some educated guesses based on a wealth of literature but at the end of the day, only YOU know YOU. Black for one person might mean depression while black for another person might mean the comfort of a cool dark room to rest in. A storm in the sky for one person might mean anger or impending doom, while another might mean fun and snuggly lazy days curled up with a good book. No one thing can mean the same thing for every single person. So an arts therapist is not an art interpreter or an art critic. That is not the role of an arts therapist.

There are two schools of thought on what arts therapy is and I admit to subscribing to BOTH of them! Some say arts therapy is about the doing of art, the process of art-making. It's about using the art materials to express yourself without the need for words, without the need for analysis, it's simply about - as the above photo suggests - getting the mess in your head out of your head in order to create space inside yourself to breathe. As someone who does art for this very purpose, I happily agree with this type of art therapy. Doing art has therapeutic benefit whether you do it alone, with others or with a therapist there to hold the space, supply the materials, witness your process and/or give some direction on what to do and what materials to use that are best for what you are experiencing, they all have great benefit.

An open studio experience using cheap acrylic paints. This was more about the process.

Part of my training is to learn what art materials help with what kind of experiences. For instance, using watercolours can be beneficial for grief and sadness, while gritty charcoal can be useful for those things we might feel are dirty or grating, or even for some shadow work. Paint is great for moments where you might be feeling a bit stuck and you need to experience a bit of fluidity and movement in your life and clay can be great for those times where you need to knead and push and mould a new way of seeing into existence.

This one was depicting what I wanted to get out of my uni journey, done at the start of my uni journey.

Arts therapy encompasses a lot of mediums, not just the art supplies you might automatically think of like pencils and chalk pastels, acrylic paint or even collage but it can encompass sand tray therapy, drama therapy, music therapy, voice and sound therapy, dream therapy, ecotherapy, ephemeral art, it's all included under the umbrella term of arts therapy and it can all be useful in gaining a new perspective, stepping back and looking at things from a distance, it can help with new insight or knowledge, it can help show where you might need more support or where you may need to finally step off that cliff into the unknown.

Some ephemeral art done in a local park.

Others say that the making of the art is just the bridge. The bridge to explore the issue or problem deeper. The art once completed can be built upon or manipulated to create change. The art can be analysed and interpreted by the person who created it with the help of particular questioning by the therapist. So while the art therapist is not there to interpret, they can help guide the art maker in interpreting their own symbology and metaphors that arise in their artwork. It never fails to delight and leave me in awe seeing how serendipitous art can be and so incredibly relevant. My degree has been an experiential degree, meaning we all do the actual processes ourselves so we can understand by doing, we understand by experiencing the processes and I have had a number of times where my mind has been blown wide open by the symbology that shows up without me even realising I was creating it.

This was a class group art installation. 

Art therapy is great for non-verbal people or people who don't want to talk about it or if you just don't have the words to adequately describe it. Art therapy is a great way to express how you're feeling without secondarily traumatising someone else or to simply get the blocked trauma or emotion out of your body. Art therapy is a gentle way to begin the healing process and a great way to go on your own hero/heroine's journey allowing the art to transform you. I might be biased because I'm an arts therapist but art therapy is the best form of therapy in the world as far as I'm concerned!

Another awesome group collaboration using natural products after a glorious meditation.

I love the flower creation I made and the connections to other people's creations. It was a beautiful process.

In Joy!