What should I expect in my first session?

Accessing your creativity helps your brain to step out of feeling stuck, improves your mood, and increases your self-esteem and personal confidence. The initial session with your therapist will include a thorough exploration of what you are facing in your life, and is a place to begin to organize your goals for the therapy process. While your therapist may ask direct questions, you are in control of the pace of therapy, and are encouraged to disclose information at a level that is comfortable for you.

How is art therapy practiced in sessions?

Art making in therapy is a user-friendly process, and is driven by your experiences and your therapeutic goals. Your therapist may suggest an artistic directive or open ended prompt (e.g. to create a body map of your current emotions) to help you communicate your ideas, experiences, motivations, and emotions that you may be struggling to communicate with words alone. Clients may also focus on the sensory and physical aspects of non-directive art making to provide healthy relaxation, integrate physical and psychological processes, expand focus, and improve your mood.

Sometimes clients prefer to make art outside of their therapy time, and will share their images at the beginning of sessions. Other clients select to make art during sessions to make use of creative guidance from the therapist. You may prefer to let your art speak for itself, or to explore its meaning in dialog with your therapist. The process of verbally engaging with your art may help you see the issues you have been struggling with in new ways. It may also answer important questions, strengthen your communication skills, and assist with the formation of meaningful relationships.

Can art therapy be practiced virtually?

Art therapy absolutely can be practiced via telehealth platforms! The client and the art therapist will discuss best practices for each individual, and work together to select appropriate art media for the client to have available during sessions. Sometimes clients enjoy making art during sessions, and use their webcams to share the art content that they have produced in the meeting. In other instances, clients will work on therapeutic art making between sessions, and will share pictures of their completed images with their art therapist prior to each session. This gives each participant access to the relevant images for discussion and processing in session, and provides opportunities for responsive art making in sessions as psychological content unfolds and is worked through collaboratively.

What if I don’t feel confident in my art making skills?

Art therapy is unique in that it draws on the inclusive process of art making rather than the aesthetics of the finished product. Many studies have shown that the neurological and psychological benefits of art therapy are available to all people, regardless of artistic skill level. Your art therapist will carefully and sensitively explore with you the forms of art making that feel most comfortable to you, and will work with you to establish creative practices that support your emotional health and personal growth. In this process, your therapist will not be critical of your images and will provide empathic guidance and encouragement to expand your artistic confidence.

What art making supplies will I need?

Many of the decisions around therapeutic art making comes down to personal preference and client comfort. There is no set practice of art making that will work universally for every person, and individualized art therapy provides time to get to know a variety of artistic materials to see which options best fit for your goals. Your therapist uses her experience with the Expressive Therapies Continuum (Hinz, 2009) to help you choose appropriate art media and to provide structure to organize the expression of your sensations, perceptions, feelings, and ideas. Many clients engage in art therapy using the following materials:

• Graphite pencils

• Markers

• Oil Pastels

• Paint sticks

• Cut paper collage

• Air-dry clay

• Watercolor paints

• Acrylic paints

• Art journaling or altered books

• Found object sculpture

• Felting

• Knitting and crocheting

• Photography/digital art making

Do I need to make art to be engaged in art therapy?

No. Art therapy takes many forms, including verbal metaphor and engagement in viewing images that have been created by others, or are reflected in the natural world. Sometimes a simple schematic diagram or quick doodle can make a noticeable difference in shifting a habitual way of looking at or perceiving important aspects of your experience. The process of art therapy is the process of engaging intentionally with your creativity—which can be realized in a myriad of psychologically effective ways.

Reference:

Hinz, Lisa D. Expressive Therapies Continuum: A Framework for Using Art in Therapy (2nd Edition). New York: Routledge, 2019.