How Art Therapy Works
One of the most frequent questions I get from new clients is “How art therapy works?” or “How do you work with clients?” Well, it depends.
A Unique Process
Like every person is a unique individual, how art therapy works is also uniquely tailored to that individual. The materials may be different based on practicalities or personal preferences. The goals for therapy are also different for each individual.
But I’m not an Artist!
However, there are some similarities. Art therapy starts a dialogue between the individual and their own creative process. The best thing about art therapy is you don’t need any art talent OR previous experience. The creative process is available to absolutely everyone.
Art Therapy A Deep Listening
For me, art is a conversation with my soul. Art therapy allows for a deep listening between you and your internal guide. Likewise, psychodynamic therapy, or the approach of depth psychology, allows for deep listening to the art therapy client. In other words, you start to feel heard in ways you may not have even thought possible. What could be more empowering than that?
As sessions go, we start to notice patterns in the artwork. It may be a relationship of colors or a particular squiggle or shape that keeps showing up in artwork week after week. There may be a particular subject matter that becomes a theme in the artwork.
The Power of Images
As these patterns emerge, we start to uncover, together a personal language of the soul. This language communicates subtle shifts in the unconscious and emotional landscape, that give hints on the path ahead. These shifts in the art, reflect shifts in emotional energy. Similarly, the shifts also reflect outwardly as the attitudinal interface with the world.
Carl Jung said, “My speech is imperfect. Not because I want to shine with words, but out of the impossibility of finding those words, I speak in images. With nothing else to express the words from the depths.” He was saying that our most primordial parts of our self exist within us as images. In art therapy, we turn toward those images with curiosity. There may not be logical, precise ways to talk about those symbols, except through metaphor. Art therapy has the unique ability to hold those images in consciousness.
Encouraging Growth
Sometimes when something new is forming, it may be an inkling, a sparkle, deep in our hearts. Like a seedling, it can be fragile. In art therapy, the art can hold this nascent energy and care for it while it develops.