The Connection Between Art and Therapy
By Chloe Jones
Have you ever felt yourself stuck in a rut for days or even weeks maybe? You have a list of things to do a mile long, but you just can't get yourself to do it? Not feeling happy, but can’t tell what you’re feeling? What if the brush stroke that paints the canvas is the same one that could heal the mind? It turns out that art can be a powerful form of expression, not just for famous artists but for anyone. Art can be a form of expression that doesn’t need words, which is one reason it can be so cool. Art therapy can help process things like experiences, emotions, and thoughts in a way that doesn’t require verbal expression. This can happen through things like medium (type of art; clay, pencil, paint, marker, etc.), color, shape, pattern, and more.
This is something I started to connect with after I got diagnosed with anxiety, depression, and C-PTSD in high school. Even though I have a phenomenal therapist, I was having a hard time talking about what I was feeling or going through for a long time. I started taking art classes in my last two years of high school, and that was when I started to notice that it had some kind of effect on me. When I had art classes, I would walk into class feeling stressed or anxious and I left feeling noticeably better 9 times out of 10. I also found myself pulling out my drawing pads in my free time if I was feeling upset. I continued taking drawing and painting classes in college so I could continue to improve my abilities with them, but I also decided to try out a new medium. I started working with pottery and ceramics over the last couple of years, and I continued to notice the same kind of effects I got from painting and drawing. Not only did they help me calm down when I was upset, I also felt like all three gave my mind a chance to slow down and process what I was feeling enough to be able to articulate it.
After noticing these commonalities with the art I was doing, I brought it up to my therapist and she told me that art can be known for having therapeutic elements. With some research, I found that there are several studies that look into using art therapy for disorders like anxiety, depression, and PTSD. In an article by Asare and colleagues, they do a really good job discussing what art therapy is and discussing what benefits come from art therapy, like providing another means to communicate problems when doing so verbally is difficult and being able to be freely express how someone is feeling internally. An article by Apoorva and colleagues discusses how different disorders responded to the research done with art therapy so far. According to their study, they found that people with mood disorders had varying response levels, for people with anxiety participating in drawing, painting, or ceramics helped them regulate emotions which helped reduce their anxiety, and in patients with dementia art therapy has been shown to work to aid in cognitive rehabilitation.
If you come to find yourself feeling overwhelmed in the future, you should definitely try sitting down for a little bit and letting your creative juices flow for a few minutes. You could look up a drawing prompt online and find a picture or a video, draw abstract shapes and lines, draw a repetitive shape until you fill up a page, or even color in a coloring book. It could be your new favorite way to calm yourself down!
References
Asare, E. P. D., Doku, P. N., Agyapong, E., & Osafo, J. (2024). Knowledge and use of art therapy for mental health treatment among clinical psychologists. PLOS ONE, 19(5). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0303246.
Shukla, A., Tripathi, M., & Khanna, A. (2022). Role of art therapy in the promotion of mental health: A critical review. Cureus, 14(8). https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.28026.