About Art Therapy
What is Art Therapy?
Art Therapy is an integrative mental health and human services profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship. Art Therapy, facilitated by a professional art therapist, effectively supports personal and relational treatment goals as well as community concerns.
Art therapists are master-level clinicians who work with people of all ages across a broad spectrum of practice. Guided by ethical standards and scope of practice, their education and supervised training prepares them for culturally proficient work with diverse populations in a variety of settings.
Honoring individuals’ values and beliefs, art therapists work with people who are challenged with medical and mental health problems, as well as individuals seeking emotional, creative, and spiritual growth.
(American Art Therapy Association, 2017)
Discover the benefits of art therapy
fosters self-awareness & self-esteem · facilitates self-expression
encourages problem-solving · communication · pain-reduction
increases well-being · improves relationships · promotes insight
cultivates emotional resilience · processes emotional distress & trauma
C · R · E · A · T · I · V · I · T · Y
How can art therapy help me?
Art Therapy is used to improve cognitive and sensory-motor functions, foster self-esteem and self-awareness, cultivate emotional resilience, promote insight, enhance social skills, reduce and resolve conflicts and distress, and advance societal change.
Through integrative methods, art therapy engages the mind, body, and spirit in ways that are distinct from verbal articulation alone. Kinesthetic, sensory, perceptual, and symbolic opportunities invite alternative modes of receptive and expressive communication, which can circumvent the limitations of language.
Visual and symbolic expression gives voice to experience, and empowers individual, communal, and societal transformation.
(American Art Therapy Association, 2017)