Art is one of those expressions that speaks for itself about life. Art could be of various kinds, such as writing, a newly created music, a picture, painting, etc. There could not be any less of art around us, and we might cross paths every day with several artists around telling their stories.
Mental well-being is a crucial factor in living a healthy and peaceful life. We all are at a stage right now where every one of us is rushing towards a path that might not have a final destination. We forget to stop and analyze what we are putting our minds through in the entire process, and that is when a therapy intervenes and helps fix things.
People generally associate therapy with the instability of the mind and every other stigma surrounding it. It is essential to understand that when times like this are sensitive, and everything around seems like the end of the world, it is no harm to reach an expert. Now, who says the support needs to be a conventional one to one session, sitting together and talking about your suppressed unconscious?
Art Therapy is a new form of therapy explained first by an artist in the UK in 1940. Of course, it is an old therapy. Still, it took its pace very recently when people seem to associate themselves more with colors on the canvas than talking openly about their distressed unconscious mind.
As Medical News Today explains the precise definition given by the American Art Therapy Association, it is a kind of therapy that integrates mental health and human services by using “active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience.
Art Therapy takes place under the guidance of a licensed therapist and an artist who could help an individual’s well-being with art and creative processes session. These sessions are not necessary to be group therapy or performed in only educational or medical institutions. Still, one could indeed go for private therapy or couple or family art therapy.
The Workings and Its Benefit
Some people feel that it benefits their minds more than anything when they are involved in any art-making. Those creative processes give them a method of self-expression and help in healing their mental health.
It is unnecessary for a person interested or willing to go for art therapy to be an artist; they have to be happy when they devote to their art. It might be mixing colors and discovering a piece of their suppressed consciousness or singing aloud to relieve their minds of all suppressed anxiety, fear, and the buzzing sound in their head.
Art therapy indulgence can indeed provide a person the much required safe space to discover his/her hidden thoughts and feelings to develop a more profound satisfaction towards life self and be mentally healthy.
One must understand that art therapy is more than just a session of creative expression. But it is one moment when you could paint or create something that speaks about your thoughts and feelings about yourself and your life. It liberates you to communicate in whichever form you want and help someone listen to your inner pang’s anxiety about something.
Art therapy could benefit you not just by painting people or images, but it could include:
- Scribbling something or anything which first appears in your mind
- Clay is one of the most used materials during an art therapy session since it practically allows one to carve something out of their imagination.
- Thumb painting
- Drawing etc.
During the session, a therapist can develop various means to help you express your thoughts with colors, brush strokes, and a lot more things. The main agenda seems to understand you and help you get better mentally through your unfiltered attitude and expressions. Margaret Naumberg, who was the “mother of art therapy,” thought that,
when individuals talked through this creative process with a therapist, they could come to understand what their artwork was revealing to them about themselves. This understanding would, in turn, promote psychological healing.
~ Medical News Today
Moreover, many therapists have analyzed that art therapy could benefit not only in enhancing social skills but also in healing an individual’s trauma. It could help you in ways such as-
- Help in combating traumatic brain injuries
- Mental Conditions such as depression, anxiety, autism, etc
- Substance use disorders
- Dealing with Eating disorders
- Stress
- An approachability to resolve conflicts
- A better and improved self-awareness
What are the other art forms that could help?
Art therapy could help children who have had a traumatic childhood experience or maybe sometimes were part of any juvenile offense, which leaves deep scars in their minds. Children are sensitive, and they need to be handled gently and with much care. Art therapy could be the best approach for healing their minds and help them be optimistic towards themselves and understand their thoughts in somewhat better ways.
Although art therapy need not be only in the form of painting or drawing to benefit a healing mind, rather there are various other forms, each more expressive than the other, such as
Dance
It is a nonverbal communication form where the body language, expression, gestures, and postures speak more for an individual to help understand their inner happenings.
Music
Nothing could be more expressive and soulful than a melody created with words or without words. A joyful musical note would instantly describe a person’s mental health, and a sorrowful piece would speak of other trauma and disasters faced by an individual.
Drama & Poetry
The best way is the role play, which helps understand the ideas and emotions and helps build an interpersonal connection with the other person. People often write small poetical pieces and perform them as drama amongst people in a group session, which allows them to heal, distract, and keeps preoccupied with things better than focusing on anything worth grieving.
Creativity could always heal, and one must not always have to opt for therapies to be more creative. It is still inside you and can benefit you to give your mind some much-needed peace.
So, treatments are not something conventional that would always require you to talk, but it could be certain expressing activities in your everyday life, which could prove more soothing and relaxing and a road to mental well-being.
