ART Therapy

A picture is worth a thousand words conveys the message that sometimes an idea can be transmitted more effectively visually than verbally. 

Art Therapy is a mental health profession that uses art making in conjunction with verbal psychotherapy to improve mental health. It requires extensive post graduate education (a minimum of 2 years for a Masters), a national board exam, and 1500 hours of supervised post graduate level clinical experience to be licensed in NY State. 

When incorporating Art Therapy in sessions, I frequently ask people to make artwork around specific themes. For example if they are having difficulty accessing their feelings, I might ask them to draw their mood as a weather condition, or if they're experiencing heightened anxiety, I might ask them to create a collage showing me what self-soothing looks like or draw triggers and one side of the page and coping strategies on the right to identify internal and external resources to identify what stressors they can minimize and how to more readily access coping strategies on a day-to-day basis.

Art Therapy is another tool we can potentially use to access what's coming up for you and deepen the therapeutic process as a means of facilitating healing.