Art Therapy as a Method of Regulating Psychological Defenses

Clare McCarthy, ATR-BC, LCPC

What are psychological defenses? 

Psychological defenses are an important aspect of keeping our sense of self intact. Much like a pulled muscle that tenses in order to protect itself from further overstretching, psychological defenses are innate and learned mental systems that keep us from consciously experiencing cognitive and emotional stressors we perceive as threatening.  Being mentally defended is analogous to having strong psychic walls that keep our frames of reference safe from outside challenge and experience.

What are we defending anyway?

Psychological defenses are generally set up around cognitive material that we instinctively feel vulnerable about or doubt about ourselves, and can be seen reflected in the phrases “hitting a nerve” or “too close to home.” As people, we all need to be valued and included by those important to us; anything that may make us feel vulnerable to social exclusion, negative judgment, or stigmatization become particularly powerful as defensive triggers.  As part of social groups, we consciously hold particular personal values, and expend considerably psychological energy to see ourselves within those moral and ethical parameters. Defenses help us to discount and avoid any information that may run contrary to our understanding of ourselves.

How do our defenses hold us back in our psychological growth?

Our psychological defenses protect us from allowing anyone to add to our own insecurities, but in doing so they also obscures an authentic sense of self and create considerable distortions and blind spots in accurate self understanding. These blind spots and distortions can have a strongly limiting effect on personal growth, insight, and psychological healing. Experiencing defensiveness can keep us from moving past our dysfunctional patterns, integrating new information about ourselves and others, and adapting successfully to a changing interpersonal world. 

What triggers activate our psychological defenses?

A state of defensiveness can be triggered by situations or stimuli that we perceive as dangerous to the integrity of our conceptual frameworks—especially those related to how we see ourselves. Complementary and alternative medicine teach that the triggers of our psychological defenses often occur outside of our conscious awareness, leading us to respond reactively out of reflexive self-protective instinct.

“Defensive reactivity” is a state of highly sensitive responsiveness driven by the brain’s emergency response system, particularly the amygdala and sympathetic nervous system. Nervous system activation patterns are influenced by genetics, and are also impacted by experiences within relationships, particularly those with important people early in life.

What behaviors are rooted in defensiveness?

Being defensive can create recognizable behavioral patterns that differ from person to person. Common defensive reactions include shutting down, physical tension, withdrawing, blaming, discounting feedback as unfair, highlighting a narrative of victimization, feeling a sense of righteous indignation, misremembering events, or looking exclusively outside of ourselves for an explanation of our responses and behaviors.

How does art therapy help reduce defenses in psychological treatment? 

While conventional therapies and medical treatments are valuable in reducing defensive reactivity, art therapy and expressive therapies offer expanded holistic alternatives to medicine. Because many of our defense patterns are primarily learned and strengthened in verbal environments, verbal interactions including cognitive therapy interventions may be particularly prone to trigger our defenses. Visual therapy methods including drawing therapy, painting therapy, and other expressive arts therapy activities may be less likely to trigger the tripwires of defensive reactivity that limit growth and stall change. Using visual exploration as a primary intervention of therapy, it is possible to create a safe space within which the licensed art therapist and the client are able to mindfully engage with challenging psychological topics that may not be available for opening with words alone.  Art therapy provides two particular options for regulating defensive triggers and allowing for the exploration of defended material.

1.) Self soothing through art making

Because of the many ways in which our defenses move quickly and unconsciously to stop the mental integration of new perspective or threatening material, the work of managing defenses in therapy looks different depending on the individual. One of the valuable options that art making offers to clients within an art therapy session is the presence of a sensory artistic outlet which provides a grounding and engaging respite when a client is feeling overwhelmed or emotional raw following a triggering stimuli in the session.  

Abstract grounding art making, with the guidance the art therapist or created in a self-directed open studio format, provides clients a mental container that helps to move away from the intense feelings of an intellectual debate (which can increase defensiveness) and towards the stance of inclusively inviting unconscious material into the therapeutic space. This inclusive stance can be then directed by the client who can use their natural curiosity to develop and hold a mental framework in which they can slow down, recognize their internal emotions and behavioral responses, and find clarity in order to separate painful past feelings, thoughts, and responses from present circumstances and current safety. 

2.) Using art images to safely uncover material previously protected by psychological defenses

Having used art making to better recognize and regulate their physiological responses, clients can engage in increasingly representational explorative art making in which previously inaccessible unconscious material can find a healthy outlet, in much the same way that water can find the cracks in a rock to flow through an otherwise solid barrier. Having created art, clients can successively engage in reflecting on the images that they have created, and build increasing insight regarding what self-referential material their defenses may have been obscuring. In this process, defenses can be disarmed and safely circumvented without the direct confrontation that many conventional psychological therapies rely on, thereby moving clients towards greater self acceptance and authenticity through the use of holistic healing therapies.