Art Therapy
Art Therapy
Art Therapy is “a therapeutic treatment that incorporates the process of creating or selecting images, reflecting on the art, and interacting with a trained professional for assessment, communication, stress reduction, and intervention” (Doris Arrington, ATR-BC, HTM, 2001).
It’s especially useful for people who find verbal communication difficult, but Art therapy can be a way for people of all ages and cultures to use art as a language. Art Directives are used within individual, family, and group sessions as tools to promote healing for both psychological and physical pain.
The right hemisphere of the brain is utilized while aperson is making art, which stimulates intuition, imagination, holistic thought, and insight. This is where the healing process begins.
In turn, when a person is speaking to the artwork they’ve created, the left hemisphere is activated which stimulates verbal, analytical, and rational forms of reasoning.