The power of art therapy in developing self-compassion
Clare McCarthy, ATR-BC, LCPC, NCC
What is self-compassion?
According to Dr. Kristen Neff, a Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, self-compassion includes three components:
Being understanding and warm towards ourselves when we have encountered a set-back or a failure, or when we feel inadequate due to our perceived shortcomings.
Recognizing that our own personal suffering and failures are part of being human, and not something that happens only to us alone.
Talking a balanced mental approach to our negative emotions in order to observe and accept our feelings in a non-judgmental way without suppressing or exaggerating them. We understand that while we may feel bad, the feelings will pass, and they do not define us or our value.
What are the benefits of self-compassion?
When we treat ourselves with compassion, we are more able to create an accurate understanding of who we are, which is the foundation of developing our strengths and addressing our weaknesses. Having strong self-compassion contributes to having a growth mindset and boosts our ability to assess our personal trajectories and make corrections to our actions as needed.
When we practice self-compassion we are more authentic and psychologically flexible, as we are less internally reactive to negative thoughts about ourselves. Treating ourselves with understanding kindness (rather than with judgment) helps to reduce our fears about social rejection and disapproval, which opens the door to increased confidence and self-acceptance.
How can we begin to learn to practice self-compassion?
Improving our self-compassion does not need to be complicated or difficult; it is a skill that can be learned and developed through intentional practice. To begin this practice, it can be helpful to create a visual reminder of a three-part check in asking the following questions:
Am I currently considering ways that I may be kind and understanding to myself?
Am I aware that having personal shortcomings and failures are experiences shared by all human beings?
Am I acknowledging the validity of my feelings, while also recognizing that they do not define me or my entire reality?
Using our art materials to write out and visually organize these three questions can deepen our intake of the material and reduce defensiveness to what may be challenging concepts. When we write by hand, our brain process the complex sensory information in a more detailed way, which in turn helps to successfully load the information into our memory for integration and later recall. In art therapy practice, when we have created a hand-written art image (possibly on a notecard or post-it note) we can then place the image in a space that we frequently encounter. Reading the text repeatedly helps us further integrate the information, and allow the concepts to continue to impact our internalized patterns of reacting to our experiences and our emotions.
How can art making in therapy offer unique and effective methods for practicing self-compassion?
Art therapy encourages us in developing images of ourselves to help us step outside of the habitual ways we conceptualize and internally react to ourselves. When we give ourselves permission to create images that represent ourselves, we are able to step outside of our ingrained first-person perspective, and reflect on the variety of capacities and characteristics that we have. This flexible imagery can help us to dialog with the aspects of ourselves that we are struggling to accept, and to begin to create new images of ourselves as our own protector and nurturer. This can assist us in beginning to more fully treat ourselves as someone who we are responsible for taking care of, someone who shares in the basic and ongoing struggles of having human consciousness, and someone that we are working to better understand and accept.
As we practice art making, we may also reduce judgment of ourselves by continuously calling our attention back to our sensory processes. What do these art materials feel like in our hands? What is the experience of attending to the marks we are making? What are the visual qualities of viewing these colors together on this surface? Noticing these sensory details helps to build our state of mindfulness that focuses on perceptions—on noticing, observing, and describing. In this state, we are more receptive to new information, and less likely to jump into patterns of reflexive self-judgment or critique.
What questions may be helpful guides to engaging our artistic process in building self-compassion?
What are the visuals of self-compassion we can apply to our own lives?
How can we develop and refine our images of how we understand and relate to ourselves?
How can art making and imagery reflect and illuminate our current understanding of how we experience reactions to our shortcomings or failures?
How might we select and develop the appropriate visuals to support the process of learning to hold ourselves with compassion, and to step beyond our former pattens of regarding ourselves in moments of difficulty or self-reproach?
References:
September-October 2018 issue (pp.116–123) of Harvard Business Review. Give Yourself a Break: The Power of Self-Compassion, by Serena Chen
