Art Therapy
What is Art Therapy?
Art Therapy is the use of visual art mediums including painting, drawing, sculpting, weaving, collage, and photography by a licensed clinician to help facilitate individual self-expression, emotional regulation and integration, as well as collective healing, connection, social change, and more.
What are the Benefits?
Art Therapy has countless benefits! Creating visual art transcends the limitations of language by giving tangible form to intangible feelings and allowing a space for the unconscious to become conscious. Art-making is a powerful form of self-expression as well as self-regulation and impacts our cognitive processes, emotions, somatic (body-based) experience, and overall well-being in a positive way.
What do Art Therapists do?
Art Therapists provide a safe, supportive, nonjudgemental environment in which clients can express themselves freely and openly. They demonstrate congruence and authenticity, listen and observe without judgment or criticism, and refrain from interpreting or analyzing a clients' artwork for them, but rather encourage the client to explore and make meaning of their own work. Art therapists also help their clients choose art materials and techniques that are appropriate for the client's current level of emotional and cognitive functioning. During sessions, art therapists pay attention to how clients utilize and interact with the art materials, the level of commitment to the process and frustration tolerance, boundaries and taking up space, risk-taking, verbal communication, nonverbal behaviors, and any change in emotional state that may occur.
Who Can Use Art Therapy?
Most anyone can benefit from Art Therapy! It is particularly useful for children and teens who have trouble expressing their emotions (especially those who are non-speaking), people who have experienced trauma, seniors experiencing Alzheimer's/dementia, those with intellectual disability, and those who are hesitant to engage in therapy.
Additional Resources:
Spotlight on Photography
Meet Justin Andries, our Disastershock Global Response Team Arts & Recovery Intern!
Justin is a student at NYU receiving his Masters in Public Health with a concentration in Global Health. We asked him why he is drawn to photography and how taking pictures enriches his life.
"Photography has been a passion of mine since I got my first iPhone at 13 years old. I take photos to capture the world around me and all the memories I’ve created in it. It’s an escape - a way to time travel into spaces that I yearn for, or to momentarily get out of the space that I am currently in. Photography is such a healing hobby for me as it's a way for me to communicate with people without having to talk. To see the world through the lens of Justin T. Andries is to see love. To see love, all you have to do is go outside, look at nature, look at animals interacting with each other, at your neighbor running for the bus knowing he missed it, an old couple holding hands across the street - love is everywhere and in everything. That’s why I take so many photos because there’s an endless amount of ways to capture love."
