Art Therapy

Art therapy provides clients with focused, compassionate guidance in the creative process of art making. It assists clients in better understanding and communicating their thoughts & feelings, and in improving their cognitive, emotional, and physical well-being.  

Studio art therapy is carefully tailored to meet the needs of all individuals, regardless of age or artistic experience level. The purpose of art making in a session is to create imagery that will creatively express internal experiences in ways that are user-friendly, adaptable, and enjoyable. This focus helps free clients from internal judgments and concerns about the final product, and enhances expressive freedom and personal growth.

Art Therapy Helps To:

  • reduce stress 

  • improve healthy communication 

  • resolve interpersonal conflicts

  • heal from painful experiences

  • process trauma

  • increase self-awareness & self-esteem

  • achieve insight

  • deepen self-awareness

  • boost healthy coping skills

Individualized art therapy for all ages:

 
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Art Therapy Helps Children to:

  • share the content of their minds in a safe and contained relational environment

  • process their emotions through their own unique visual language

  • Build a healthy sense of self

  • Boost emotional intelligence in order to better

    • Express and regulate difficult emotions

    • Understand and change problematic behaviors

    • Adjust to life changes and new challenges

    • build healthy trust in themselves and others

 
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Art Therapy Helps Adolescents to:

  • Express and contain turbulent emotions that correspond with hormonal and social changes

  • Practice independent creative thought to better manage a wide variety of personal and social challenges with competence and emotional flexibility

  • Experiment with their ideas and feelings in creative ways to develop improved

    • frustration tolerance

    • empathy for others

    • motivation & planning

    • self-compassion

    • mindfulness & grounding skills

 
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Art Therapy Helps Young Adults to:

  • Identify, explore, and express the shifting emotions connected to a life stage of frequent transition & personal change

  • Use visual schema and imagery to promote healthy conceptualization of complex issues to better address them strategically

  • Engage with individualized images and creative metaphors to explore how earlier life experiences may have shaped current patterns, including those related to

    • Family of origin dynamics

    • Prior traumatic experiences

    • Relationship pattern difficulties

    • Belief systems underlying personal expectations of the self and others

    • Cultural factors connected to mental health

 
 
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Art Therapy helps Adults and Professionals to:

  • Reconnect with a sense of playfulness and spontaneity that encourages psychological growth and healing

  • Sort through conflicting and confusing thoughts and emotions in a tangible, sensorily engaging format

  • Enhance self-care and mindfulness strategies to reduce burnout and fatigue

  • Express emotions that may not be accessible in words alone

  • Clarify verbal frameworks and illustrate concepts related to personal mental health

  • Build new psychological skills and strategies to better regulate difficult emotions

  • Deepen self-awareness an self-acceptance

  • Make new meaning of prior hardships and current challenges in a way that renews personal power