Arts Psychotherapy
Trauma informed expressive therapy
What is Arts Psychotherapy?
Art psychotherapy incorporates a range of therapy models, neuroscience and trauma theory, to help clients heal and grow. It just means that clients aren’t limited to sitting still in a chair and talking.
An Arts Psychotherapist can guide you to use art materials, such as paint, pencils, pastels or playdough, or use postcards, sand tray, objects or metaphor to express, explore and understand your experience.
The therapist can also help you to use art materials and creative activities for mindfulness practices to access curiosity, find new ways to notice your experience without judgement and to learn new tools to help you manage your feelings.
You do not need to have any skills or experience in art. The focus is on the process, and what your work and the experience means to you, it is not about creating aesthetically pleasing art.
Art Psychotherapy can be helpful when used together with Internal Family Systems Therapy:
to get to know parts
to map parts
to explore relationships between parts
to give distance and perspective
to give non verbal parts expression
Art Psychotherapy can we helpful when:
you don’t have words for what you feel
you don’t want to name it
you want distance from what you feel
you feel many things at the same time which feel chaotic or overwhelming
Art Psychotherapy can help with:
anxiety
depression
relationship problems
loss and grief
eating disorders and body dysmorphia
managing emotions
“When words are not enough we turn to images and symbols to tell our stories, and in telling our stories through art, we find pathways to wellness, recovery and transformation”
— Cathy Malchiodi