What is Art Therapy?

Art therapy is an experimental type of therapy that assists patients in making progress toward recovery. This type of therapy helps create a safe space for them to express their creativity as well as their complicated emotions that they are unable to verbalize. Furthermore, it can help people process challenging feelings and experiences, gain new insights, and create new coping mechanisms. This kind of therapy can be a game-changer for people who struggle to talk about difficult moments in their lives or communicate their deepest emotions. Depending on preference and rehabilitation needs, it can be done either individually or in a group. Moreover, enjoying art in itself can help patients unwind, reduce stress, and feel more mindful of themselves and their surroundings.

Although there are many types of art forms that can be explored in art therapy, here are just a few of the most common examples:

• Drawing
• Painting
• Sculpting
• Music
• Dancing
• Poetry

History of Art Therapy

Although art has been used throughout history for healing, self-expression, and conflict resolution, art therapy was not developed as a distinct and widely recognized treatment approach until the middle of the 20th century. Adrian Hill, a British artist who discovered the therapeutic value of painting and drawing while battling tuberculosis, invented the term “art therapy” in 1942. Several writers in the mental health sector started referring to their work with patients as “art therapy” in the 1940s. These care providers frequently had backgrounds in other fields. They were under the supervision of psychiatrists, psychologists, or other mental health care specialists at the time because no formal art therapy courses or training programs were available.

How Art Therapy is Incorporated During a Therapy Session

Art therapy can be incorporated in various ways depending on the facility. This being said, there are different factors that the majority of facilities keep in mind. First, the time of day when the art therapy session should take place is crucial if we want to give people the best chance of reaping the numerous benefits. Most patients may feel worn out after a morning filled with emotionally-draining therapy sessions. For this reason, most art therapists advise scheduling art therapy for later in the day. An afternoon art therapy session aids individuals in creatively processing the events that happened that day by stimulating the brain’s creative areas.

An art therapy session is significantly more complex than many people may have encountered in an arts and crafts class. During an art therapy session, a professionally trained art therapist may offer different art forms or pick out one they believe is suitable for the individual. Depending on preference and rehabilitation needs, art therapy sessions can be done either individually or in a group. Each person may reap different benefits depending on their situation, willingness to accept this type of therapy, and motivation to push through.

Types of Art Therapy Techniques and Exercises in Addiction Recovery

As previously mentioned, art therapy can be used in a variety of ways for people dealing with all sorts of issues. However, where this therapy form seems to be helping the most is addiction recovery. Although visiting a gallery can be beneficial, this is not art therapy. Professional art therapy sessions consist of various techniques and exercises that are utilized to best help recovering addicts.

Art Therapy Techniques

The most common techniques in art therapy are:

• Gestalt methods: Using this technique, a licensed specialist helps an individual express and understand their feelings and experiences through words. The artwork itself can lead to a deeper conversation or can be used so the individual can describe their emotions by describing the art piece.
• Active imagination: This technique allows the individual to think freely, using his artwork as a starting point so they may dig deep into their feelings and experiences. They find associations that stick out to them and voice them out. In most cases, this leads to deep introspection and further talk about their feelings.

• “Third-hand” approach: A practical approach that necessitates the help of a therapist. The recovering addict is still overseeing the artistic process, but they are doing so with the therapist’s aid. They must guide them into producing the art they want, compelling them to express their thoughts and emotions. This approach is convenient for reclusive people.

Art Therapy Exercises

Depending on the facility, there are various exercises that individuals will take part in. Some such exercises in art therapy are:

• Painting your safe place
• Drawing a self-portrait of your future self
• Writing a story about your struggles
• Writing poetry about your feelings
• Creating music that inspires you

Art Therapy Post-Addiction Recovery

The benefit of using art therapy in addiction recovery is that you can apply the lessons you learn from it wherever you may go. It will allow you to face your fears, feelings of guilt, and blame while also allowing you to understand your inner critic and live fully. Many individuals might even discover a fulfilling hobby they can devote their time to and return to whenever they need assistance expressing and understanding themselves. For addicts in recovery, it can also be an excellent coping technique that results in fewer relapses and a better quality of life.

Author Bio: Jesse Fuller, an addiction-recovery consultant for Bright Futures Treatment Center Boynton Beach, FL, has always been interested in the way art can heal the soul. This interest has even led him to become an artist himself and help those around him recover from addictions that have also plagued his family. Driven by this, he has helped countless addicts by writing blog posts intended to lead them to recovery.

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Art therapy has long left the office of a physician-psychotherapist or a physician-rehabilitation therapist and becomes important to expansive masses of people. It diagnoses a person’s condition, and heals, and brings that deep positive feeling of oneself, which is called happiness. And all because art therapy satisfies the most basic fundamental human need. This is the need for self-actualization. It is no secret that many people, living outwardly quite successful lives, neglect this basic need, which causes chronic dissatisfaction with their being in the world and makes us unhappy.

But the most striking results of art therapy (visible immediately with the naked eye) help relieve a state of severe stress. There is no equal among other psychotherapeutic techniques. We all know that art and creativity have a positive effect on human consciousness. But what happens inside the human brain, and how does art therapy generally affect a person? Find out below!

Things to Consider When Undergoing Art Therapy 

Art therapy should be used regularly as an ongoing stress prevention technique. And even better, having previously turned to a psychotherapist or psychologist, it can help solve problems comprehensively.

Why is that? Quite simply, creative activity has a unique property. It brings to the surface (a sheet of paper or canvas, for example) everything hidden that we are unaware of and that is latently suffocating us. Right-brain drawing, sculpting, etc., cleverly bypass the censorship of our consciousness, which bypasses negative thoughts, genuine experiences, and in general, everything related to deep unconscious processes. The censorship of consciousness does not let words pass, but it is powerless over images, over the choice of color spots, over scribbles.

First and Foremost Commandment

You must forever forget any comment or thought that you are not an artist or that a cow you have drawn is easily confused with a dog! The task of drawing beautifully is not a consideration and is even contraindicated. Here we are faced with a completely different task. Here we splash out, drawing out all the accumulated stress to improve your health.

Second Commandment 

Drawing art therapy (or sculpture or installation) should be analyzed primarily by the author himself and not by the psychotherapist. If you work alone, there can be no talk of a psychotherapist and his interpretations. Why is that? The fact is that art therapy is an insight-oriented technique. That is, it is aimed at achieving insight.

This means that when analyzing his creation, a person himself understands something about himself and his problem, which no one, even the most sophisticated psychotherapist, will tell him for any amount of money. Moreover, it is believed that the patient is obliged to come to this understanding himself. This does not happen the first time and never immediately after the completion of the drawing. But it always happens.

Third Commandment 

In any case, even if you hardly understand what and why you are doing, even if you are still far from insight, just remember that art therapy heals by the fact that you are doing it. You may not understand the mechanism, but it will become easier for you after creating the art. Remember this always.

What are the General Art Therapy Exercises and Recommendations

First, if aggression and other very negative, destructive emotions choke you, you should always prefer modeling. In this case, art therapy and, in particular, drawing will only irritate you, but modeling, on the contrary, will calm you down.

Second, always and especially at first, prefer drawing art therapy to pasting collages cut from magazines. Collage making is the last, highest, and final stage of art therapy work when all the main work has already been done, and you can enjoy pure contemplation with a minimum of creative effort. Start with a drawing.

Third, always have the widest selection of color palettes for art therapy — pencils, paints, or markers. However, you might prefer paints because the brush is more flexible and accessible. The force of pressure and the severity of the line, which a pencil requires, are less conducive to liberation, especially at first.

Fluid Art and How it Heals

The first thing that most people think of about art therapy is drawing, displaying their feelings on the canvas with the help of paints. In 2021, fluid art is gaining momentum as an avenue for art therapy. What is it? It’s the art of flow, the flow of fluids and images.

An abstract painting is created using acrylic or other paints. Each participant in the class uses a set of paints from 6 to 12 colors and creates a picture using flows of paint, mixing them with the movement of the canvas or paper.

In general, fluid art therapy has a very positive effect on a person since immersion in the process and flow is somewhat similar to meditation — creating a sense of calmness, without assessing what is happening, and just observing the process. After their creations, each participant may share their own experiences and what they saw in their picture. Often, paintings can have both whole images and abstract ones. For example, with the help of blue colors, images of water and sky are created, then when mixed with green, images of our planet are added, and more to tell the image’s story.

Author Bio: Jane Travis is a renowned psychologist in Great Britain. She has a higher philological and psychological education. She works as a writer for the BestCustomWriting.com service. She also regularly conducts master classes and speaks at various psychological conferences throughout England.

The post Art Therapy Still Matters appeared first on Art Business News.

Jenna Benn Shersher, Founder and CEO of Twist Out Cancer (TOC), was midway through her cancer treatment and feeling isolated. A dance lover, she created a video of herself doing the twist and asked her friends to join her on a virtual dance floor. It was the power of sharing and having a support community that so benefited her that she wanted to share. After completing treatment, she wanted to give back in a meaningful way. And Twist Out Cancer was born.

As TOC describes on their website: “Twist Out Cancer offers the platform, tools, and community—both online and offline—for anyone touched by cancer to feel connected to a community, and for many to take action. A labor of love, Twist Out Cancer is a volunteer-led organization boasting a network of volunteers serving as ambassadors in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Ann Arbor, Tel Aviv, Montreal, and Toronto.” One of the innovative ways that TOC connects the community to those impacted by cancer is through their Brushes with Cancer program.

Brushes with Cancer is a four-month program that strategically matches artists with those touched by cancer to create unique pieces of artwork reflective of their personal journey with cancer. It’s a global community of previvors (individuals who are genetically predisposed to cancer), survivors, caregivers, supporters, and artists.

Brushes with Cancer (BWC) pairs an artist with an “Inspiration” and they connect in person, via FaceTime, on the phone, or by email. Their relationships are guided and supported by mentors, who are often clinicians who are there to create a system of support for both the artist and inspiration. The program finishes with an art exhibition, gala, and auction where the artwork is unveiled and auctioned. What started as a small art exhibition in Chicago for 20 artists and Inspirations has now become an international program with people involved globally.

We Were Inspired!

Who doesn’t know someone who has had or has cancer? It’s pervasive and comes in so many forms—some many don’t even think of as cancer and some so rare that they aren’t part of our awareness until someone has it. Bringing awareness through art and creating a community of support along the way is truly inspiring. We wanted to know more.

We met with August Spree, TOC Executive Board Member and Director of Programs, and artist Karen Kingsolver to get a couple of inside viewpoints on the Brushes with Cancer program. Of course, since the whole TOC concept is built on the belief that when you share, the world opens up, they both were eager to tell their stories.

August came to BWC unexpectedly when a friend gave her a ticket to one of the galas. She loved the artwork and as a 10-year cancer survivor herself, she was moved by what she was experiencing. She describes, “The poignancy of the program, creating beauty from pain using art, touched my soul on a deeper level than I was even able to express at that time. This was what I had been looking for within the cancer community; a way to be involved in something personal, something creative, something with a healing quality.” Then one day, she was invited to be an Inspiration in the 2014 Brushes program.

In her words, what August came to realize is that she was “able to lay out all of my journey, the fears, the struggles, and the victories, without judgment, criticism or emotional reaction. And while I shared, I could feel myself coming to terms with my own experiences.” Things she hadn’t shared with family or even her closest friends were now spoken for the first time with her artist — and became the muse for the artwork that was unveiled. It was a healing experience for August and today working with Twist Out Cancer, she brings that experience to others over and over again.

A match: beauty from sharing

With an amazing career and background in behavioral medicine and psychology, Karen Kingsolver uses many art modalities including poetry, theater, clay, and mark-making to teach and support palliative and surgical physicians at several universities including Duke, and the universities of North Carolina and Michigan. She was inspired by the Brushes with Cancer program and applied to be an artist simply wanting to contribute. She had no idea her Inspiration would have such a profound impact on her life, nor did she anticipate the astonishing bond she would feel with her Inspiration.

Karen enlisted an artist friend, Beverly Dyer, and together they worked with her Inspiration over the months preceding the gala and, as it turned out her Inspiration’s death. The instant connection Karen felt with her Inspiration had Karen sketching and writing in journals to capture her Inspiration’s insights and wisdom. She filled most of a journal in the months they talked. Her Inspiration was going through intense difficulties and yet often was asking courageous questions such as “How do you find gratitude when you are so very sick?” and “Life has set me some big and impossible terms, so how do I keep enjoying life, while I am still living?” “Love runs through it,” was yet another one of the things Karen would hear when they connected. That and “you can invent a shiny Facebook story that ignores the truth, hides difficulties. Or, you can keep searching to transform things, to shine a light on what’s happened to you.”

Karen’s Inspiration was honored in memoriam during the Brushes with Cancer Detroit celebration in 2019. Today, as Karen reflects on the experience, she says, “She was, from the moment I met her, such an Inspiration and I told her that frequently. My Inspiration thought deeply about the big questions such as how to live your life, how to be real, and who to make time for, and who to let go. Her beauty and depth were totally unexpected.” Karen continues to be involved with BWC and is looking forward to meeting her next inspiration and creating another piece of art with that person this Spring. 

It’s the art that makes a difference

August recounts the interplay between the artists and their Inspirations she has watched so many times over the years since she walked into that first BWC gala. “An artist creates from their own viewpoint, from their experiences and inspirations. With the Brushes program, they tap into someone else and create from their viewpoint. It’s magic to see!”

As is frequently the case with art, there is a healing and a creation of awareness and revelation in the process. Not only do the Brushes pairs feel the power in their relationship and the art that has been created, but the program engages others. From stimulating interest in art at all levels to creating broader and more impactful cancer awareness while encouraging greater community involvement, the outcomes all make a difference.

We couldn’t end more perfectly than with a quote from the BWC brochure: “Brushes with Cancer is a celebration of survivorship and hope through art, music, and storytelling.”

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About Twist Out Cancer

Established in 2011 as a non-profit organization, Twist Out Cancer® offers the platform, tools and community – both online and offline – for anyone touched by cancer to feel connected to a community, and for many to take action. Twist Out Cancer was founded on the principle that when you share, the world opens up. Since its inception, the organization has touched over 22,000 people around the world through its programs and events. A labor of love, Twist Out Cancer is a volunteer-led organization boasting a network of over 200 active volunteers serving as ambassadors in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Ann Arbor, Austin, Tel Aviv, Toronto, and Montreal. More information is available at www.twistoutcancer.org.

About Brushes with Cancer

Brushes with Cancer® is the signature program of Twist Out Cancer® which provides psychosocial support to individuals touched by cancer through a unique art experience. The program matches those touched by cancer (Inspirations) with artists to create a unique piece of artwork that reflects their personal journey with cancer. Each pair is matched with a mentor which is typically a clinical psychologist or social worker that oversees the relationship development and helps to ensure that each participant is supported and heard. Since 2012, there have been over 400 works of art created and over 30,000 individuals impacted by the program. More information is available at www.twistoutcancer.org.

For media inquiries, please contact Joshua Taustein at josh@twistoutcancer.org.

To bring Brushes with Cancer to your community, please contact Amelia Hanrahan at amelia@twistoutcancer.org.

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