art therapy
Art therapy is a mental health profession, which combines the use of psychological theories and intervention methods with the use of the creative art process for assessment, treatment, education, and self-growth purposes.
No prior experience, special inspiration, or talent is needed.
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Simply allowing us to engage with the wide range of possibilities and choices the art materials, process, and product offer can be informative as well as healing.
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Advantages of Art Therapy:
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Imagery is the language of the psyche. The art process allows unconscious material to become conscious.
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The materials, process, and product offer a range of choices that reflect our internal processes and inform us about ourselves.
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The art process can result in sublimation.
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The art product is able to hold and communicate our truths without judgment.
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The art product and the metaphor it holds offer distance and safety to address otherwise unwanted or unbearable issues and realities.
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Art offers solutions to dilemmas from a nonverbal source of inner wisdom.
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Art involves a decision making process that teaches one to tolerate ambiguity and realize that persistence yields results.
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Art is evidence of an assertive act (Langarten); it requires choice making.
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Art fosters a sense of mastery, as conflicts are re-experiences, formed, concretized and viewed.
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Art defines experiences and redefines possibilities. It is a way to build and repair.
Resources:
Videos (online):
Recommended Readings:
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Art as a Way of Knowing, Pat Allen
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Art as Medicine, Creating a Therapy of the Imagination, Shaun McNiff
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Contemporary Art Therapy with Children, Shirley Riley
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Gestalt Art Therapy, Janie Rhyne
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Spirituality and Art Therapy, Ed. By Mimi Farrelly-Hansen
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The Artist in Each of Us, Florence Cane
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Understanding Children’s Drawings, Cathy Malchiodi