The conjunction of creativity and healing is best exemplified by art therapy which is an amazing field.
Try picturing a reality in which your paintbrush isn’t solely employed for drawing, rather it aids in communicating feelings you would otherwise have a hard time verbalising, for instance.
The artwork’s intention under these conditions is to assist the actor in their communion with the subject matter which is more of a helping tool rather than an artistic one.
It is an excellent method for aiding people in answering questions about themselves through creative exploration.
This is why art therapy is such an incredible technique with far-reaching potential.
Are you ready for some intriguing stories?
Get ready to listen to some amazing accounts and insights that will make this whole experience brilliant.
So in this article, we will examine the role art therapy plays in facilitating the process of creating art.
Simultaneously, we will look into how these practices can inspire artistic imagination and improve the capacity for art, stories, and much more.
What is art therapy?
Art therapy is more than just slapping paint onto a canvas; it comprehensively unites the core principles of therapy with artistic processes.
At the first step into an art therapy session, one is greeted with a nice and comfortable ambiance without the fear of being judged.
In this space emotions pour out onto canvas through paint, clay or even collages.
Participants are able to delve deep and explore feelings of happiness, sorrow, rage, and confusion which can sometimes be difficult to articulate in words.
One can say that such processes or artworks serve as a pressure valve for an individual’s spirit allowing them to vent whatever they were holding inside.
For example, I recollect attending an art therapy workshop once.
Seeing participants alter their phobia into enthusiastic colors was truly an experience.
There was one woman who had lost her mother and started painting a furious blues and black storm and while she narrated her story, that storm in her artwork turned into the embodiment of her loss and yet also her strength.
That’s the beauty of art therapy: it can be used to facilitate the growth of one’s mentality through self-exploration and out of the box thinking.
The Role of a Certified Art Therapiste
Now, let’s turn our attention to the people responsible for enabling this transition, certified art therapists.
Pretend you walk into a room sitting full of all types of art supplies and alongside is a person who makes you feel right at home, someone who knows how to facilitate the healing process.
A certified art therapist walks you through your emotions and helps you to channel all what you want to say or feel through art.
They prepare you ahead with everything necessary like being open and able to trust in order to help you confront tough feelings.
In one of the sessions I witnessed, a therapist was helping a guy with anxiety.
Rather than simply describing his fears, he picked up charcoal and sketched them out.
His anxiety was no longer just something he felt; it turned into a tangible form he was able to grasp with each brushstroke he took.
That bond between the therapist and the patient is instrumental, and it is like having a navigator beside you during sometimes choppy self discovery sessions.
The Impact of Art Therapy on Someone’s Creativity
The Activities Defined in Art Therapy
Because of its frequency, art therapy helps foster creativity in the most unexpected methods.
It allows participants to break their barriers and encourages them to try different techniques and media.
When was the last time you did something, without caring what might happen? When was the last time that you let your passion drive you?
Art therapy is one of those popular therapies that fosters the spirit of play in people by enabling them to experience different mediums of art without the pressure of expectations to outflood with creativity.
Say, a participant wants to use paint to make art, but simply feel encouraged to make a sculpted piece out of clay, and lo! They automatically end up in love with, and prefer sculpting over painting.
When you delve into unusual spaces this way, you frequently make remarkable creative strides that illuminate areas of your mind that you were unaware had existed.
I observed what I can only describe as magic take place. One art therapy patient insisted on suppressing his experiment and in the end produced a pretty impressive pair of paper mâché sculptures.
Imagine no longer “feeling like you have to be creative,” but instead feeling empowered by this kind of exercise. You realize that it is bloody magic that art can do with people.
Let us look at another case. Become Mia the sculptor instead.
Mia was dealing with a plethora of self doubts as well as some personal obstacles and that hampered her artistic expression.
Mia had always been self expressive but during therapy she tried few new things she hadn’t before.
While creating armatures, everyone had the same thought in mind. Don’t judge.
Initially, she was unsure and swayed by her musings, worrying herself over her capabilities.
Though I still largely believe she was quite talented, she managed to pull it together and with the sessions of her therapist, she underwent a significant change.
Mia sculpted several brazen chopsticks and mime raised abstract that were representative of herself during her recovery.
Her change throughout the process was reflected into an artwork – a change that now exists and has lived through her alongside many others making their lives meaningful.
Also in this context Mia emphasizes herself the importance of transformation through the creative process, particularly how this transformation is possible through trauma – and art as a result of the healing.
Peeking Into The Science Under Art Inspiration and Therapy.
Here’s all you need to know, the benefits of art therapy and its psychological help.
To begin with, art therapy – is a therapeutic direction that has an overwhelming effect on an individual.
For instance, it immersed itself into deep art, depression and stress alleviating it which in turn healed their mind & spirit, and voiced itself as a soothing agent.
I used to talk to a girl who was an acquaintance, her anxiety was unbearable at times.
The vivid talks ranged from her former life, post, ‘taking part in the therapy sessions’ where painting relieved her of the rattling over thoughts she had.
Amidst the shapes and colors, a realisation dawned on her that everything turned tranquil.
Art therapy has been her escape of some sort where emotions confined are expressed.
This unfettering gives rise to a more lucid mind which is vital as a catalyst to imagination.
If only self inhibitions and doubts were banished, it would be so much easier to draw from that vast volume of innovativeness lying inside.
Art therapy is constructively used as a means to bring about that change by providing clarity of thought and a sense of direction.
The bond between emotion and the Source of Art
Feelings and the Source of Art are considered to be interrelated to a great extent.
Have you ever thought of the out- gush of creative energy when you are overpowered by such uncontrollable feelings?
This relationship is also discovered in art therapy and is therefore used with the intention to assist people in managing their emotions in a purposeful way.
Consider the case of a painter who has recently lost in love.
Instead of suppressing the feeling of melancholy and grief, these sentiments can pour out into a canvas.
And this process of creation becomes healing whereby hurt feels soothing and beauty is born.
Emotion is an integral aspect of art, and so are many things, Art Therapy helps people to go through life by teaching them how to deal with their strong emotions through different means, art being one of them.
Once I met a poet who said that as she started going to art therapy she wrote the best poems in her life.
She was able to delve into her poetry in a novel manner by using art to communicate how she felt about the different experiences she had in life. This shows that she wasn’t able to delve deep in her poetry before. Now she had access to those depths. Now she had new layers to her poetry.
Art therapy helps in the process of healing but it also aids in nurturing art, and this is the core objective of art therapy to begin with. Art transforms the process of creation. “Art transforms and enriches creation”. That is the essence of art therapy.
Real Life Examples of Art Therapy Combining Art and Creativity
Artists Whose Work-Exemplify Benefits from Art Therapy
There are countless stories of how great artists were born, and it is exactly because of examples being what they are that throughout history the use of art therapy has undergone some form of revival again and again. Great artists are known to using art therapy as way to restore their lost creativity.
Look at Vincent van Gogh for example.
He struggled with several mental issues but he was able to paint himself out of those issues. Van Gogh was able to create some of the most moving paintings as he painted his chaos and Ao, the zenith of modern world painting. His work also forms the pinnacle.
The tale of van Gogh is a fine example of how everyone is inspired by a great artist with creative struggles, in this case art therapy followed by great art inspiration which shows over comings of one’s greatest tackles.
Edvard Munch, the author of “The Scream” is another case.
He was traumatized and was sick with very unkind mind from which his art could deliver him. He was able to touch the pain he felt and turned it into something beautiful in a canvas form thanks to his art.
One of his quotes has a good example of the life story Munch describes, he once said: “The hunger for art comes from love and some pain.”
Such tales help us know that even the best of artists went through their trials and such struggles were once converted into art, most of the time as an art of therapy.
What Drives Common People
It’s not only the legendary artists that can use art therapy but even quite common individuals have some interesting stories of being able to take up a different form of art because of it.
I remember going to an art fair displaying the works done by the participants of the art therapy course set up in the area.
Every artwork had the theme of change—one artwork was a vivid ball of colors which captured the idea of a participant who was once sad and is now happy.
Listening to her explaining the concept behind the piece was heart touching; for it made sense to her how losing someone close could feel and the work that art therapy helped her to deal with those emotions.
To take her as an example, stories like hers can motivate more individuals to try art therapy and show that there is no limit to one’s imagination and every one can be on a healing process that is creative.
In a community art project I Was Present In, participants exchanged notes on their stories.
A middle aged woman who always said she was ‘not gifted’ found a new tool in forming potteries using her creativity through art therapy.
She talked so much about how such bending and twisting clay stimulated her to feel and rejoice in the process of making things.
These day-to-day narratives give proof that art therapy is not strictly meant for the elite and the exceptional, it is for all.
It serves as a reminder that the healing factor of art is worthre cognizance for with or without skill, it is capable of changing one’s life.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main aim of art therapy?
The main aim of art therapy is enhancement of emotions and expression of self through the use of artistic mediums which includes painting, drawing, sculpting among others.
Due to this, there is a predisposition re-emotions to be easier to experience as opposed to conveying in words while arts is being created.
I am apprehensive about friends and colleagues, for instance, a man who can very much relate to feelings that he never knew existed, because they have started art therapy.
For example, One friend spoke about how she doesn’t really show her emotions that much, but just went through a phase where she wanted to channel her anxiety and frustration and to her surprise, drawing was the best medium to do so.
In this manner, you become visually creative to give a personality to words that cannot be verbalised.
It’s like you needed to be able to emote more for the painting to be more impressive so it wouldn’t be so difficult to read.
What distinguishes art therapy from other art lessons?
The difference exists where art therapy takes an art lesson in discussing and defining emotions and even psychological problems while in being trained through an art in the creation of emotionally and mentally directed activities.
I’ve participated in both settings, and I can attest to the difference. You’re encouraged to express whatever comes to mind, free from judgement or expectations. Imagine sitting in a room with a trained art therapist, where the focus isn’t on crafting a masterpiece but on delving into one’s feelings utilising different forms of art.
But in art therapy, it was liberating; the end result was no longer the goal. People are still open to new options. As I recall it was only one session where I was literally just smearing colours all over the canvas, because every stroke meant allowing myself to release all this built up pressure. As time goes on, art is still expanding, still transforming, and there’s no way to think about the end goal. I revise that experience because it truly was a paradigm shift, as it reinforced the notion that self-discovery and healing was the end goal, and the product truly wasn’t important.
Can anyone benefit from art therapy? Born into a totally different social class and not even knowing the basic things about being an artist, meeting a retired gentleman at a community workshop, hesitated because he didn’t consider himself an artist, regardless of the arena you were associating with. As long as you’re old capable at doing the things, even if you’re a three year old child, an older person would still benefit from this.
Nevertheless, as he began to engage more actively with the materials, his memory and experiences started to be emerging through memories.
It was beautiful to watch him make use of basic geometrical forms and give them significance in his life.
Art therapy is an example of a unique method that enables every individual irrespective of their artistic ability to work out their emotions, deal with stress and to seek out their inner self.
Where can one find an art therapist that is qualified and registered and licensed to practice as such?
The quest for a certified art therapist may be a bit simple than most people perceive
Begin by searching through licensed and recognized bodies such as the American Art Therapy Association (AATA ) who keep records in some parts of the country and provide a list of such professionals.
Numerous therapists provide information about themselves on the internet so that interested clients can know the types of services they provide and what they specialize in.
I suggest contacting community-based centers or other mental health practitioners as these may have information or pointers for certified art therapy practitioners.
Once you have located someone with whom you feel an affinity, do not hesitate to book an appointment for an assessment with that person.
It is important to be open with your therapists from the very beginning so that this trust when built, can help you more within the realms of art therapy.
In the end,
The effect that art therapy has on creativity is deep and complex.
Art therapy definitely encourages and promotes creativity and emotional scolor understanding.
I have seen a number of people change their lives through this practice , most of them uncovering new aspects about themselves.
Art therapy is the key to understanding the complexities of one’s emotions and their past or present life experiences regardless of whether they have been twiddling with art for years or are newcomers to the practice.
Practicing art can also be a form of emotional striving where you connect and adept harmony between both in order to be part of the artistic endeavor and performance.
So, if you have been wondering whether to try or do not try art therapy, here is your answer: go out and try.
Perhaps the journey will facilitate you better understanding you and the way in which you ought to express yourself artistically.
