Art Therapy

[anthony]

Art therapy is a good facet of a more robust solution, but not a sole solution to PTSD. Art therapy is about introducing people to relaxation through a means they find comfortable, that fits their life... usually things outside their thoughts. Moulding clay with your hands can be very therapeutic, even though it looks like shit. Throwing paint against a wall, canvas, etcetera... also can be therapeutic. I remember we made up clay pots, then we filled them with all our bad thoughts, then smashed the shit out of them in a hessian bag, then we tried to put them back together again.

It was a point to be made via art therapy that we were the pot, solid and whole, then we're filled with trauma and broken apart, and we can't ever go back exactly the way we were. We learn instruments that we couldn't play... just making noise for the sake of frustration release. I concur, that was therapeutic and relaxing.

 

[Elizabeth-Ann]

I was for the first time in this psycho-physical therapy last week, not knowing exactly what it meens. I had asket my Psychiatrist about something to complete his "talking"-therpy. I am courious to find out more.

I felt that it will probably hava a similar effect as art therapy, at least I hope so. Realizing, that I a so hypervigilant, that it is impossible for me to let go, to relax, to not be in cotrol. Realizing, that art as well as these physical therapies ARE precisely made to help relax so that deep emotions, thoughts, feelings, images can bouble up...

No miracle I still can't authorize myself to do that at the moment. To much fear still of what will happen.

 

[Sandstone]

Art therapy is about introducing people to relaxation through a means they find comfortable, that fits their life.

I agree that it's about relaxation, but I think it's also a way to express thoughts and feelings we can't articulate.That's based on my experience of trying it out, with no guidance or direction.

I'm trying all sorts of approaches to expression -

• conventional drawn art, where I've been focussing on dragons who seem to symbolise the "out-of-control" feelings
• colouring key words in things i write, which sometimes surprises me when I look back at it
• collage from Googled images, which enables me both to vent and to create soothing images
• mixed drawings and words, where I most often find myself communicating the things I didn't want to know

 

[Britt.f7]

One of my last in patient art therapy sessions involved making a collage. We took pictures and words that we used to make poetry(didn't have to be good) but it had to describe how we saw ourself. Not easy finding the words or pictures to go along with it in magazines. In fact, I wasn't sure I would be able to do it but I did it and was rather pleased with the result. I put it in my binder that we had for inpatient.

I also like coloring and drawing. I find the coloring is very soothing.

I think art therapy is very important for healing. Even if you just do it on your own. I think it is very nurturing.