Mend Art Therapy

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How art therapy works with talk therapy

There are many beneficial attributes of art therapy- it generates ‘a flow state,’ can integrate right and left brain activity, improves emotional and cognitive health, is strengths based. Art therapy can help soothe, regulate, and express emotion, externalize thoughts/feelings, facilitate self-individuation, and provide an experience of safety with another. Art therapy, through the use of different materials and emotional expression, can provide a safe space for reprocessing various affects in the body to renegotiate trauma responses. It allows for a deeper experience of repair with the mind and body- and so helps to repair connections of self with others.

My favorite part of repair work that art therapy can do is its ability to inspire hope, will, belief, change. The act of creation itself requires that someone believes in what they’re doing, and that together with therapeutic space give the clients a way to value their self-creation within their community, allowing time to reflect and create meaningful narratives and symbols that visualize their journey.

Repair in any sense today is a radical act as we are largely consumers. Spending time on the repair of ourselves and relationships with others is a creative process I love being a part of- the creation of a safe space without shame in which to work, and the exploration of all the parts of self- both finding out where there may be need for repair and where there are unknown skills and resources. Art therapy and traditional talk therapy to me go well together because the self-creation endeavor in therapy is a creative and exploratory process that uses both.