Research How Has Creative Therapy Worked For You?

[casseve]

Hi all!
I'm currently an art student (specifically Illustration student), planning to become an art therapist. I've taught art therapy to Alzheimer's patients, and it worked wonderfully and is a huge reason of why I pursued art in the first place. I see so many benefits expressive therapy can have on every person's well-being, and have used on myself many times when I feel anxiety.

I'm trying to reach out to patients that have used art therapy to hear their perspectives on the approach.

What has worked for you? (drawing, painting, music, writing, theatre maybe a combination of things--like visual journals?)

Why has it worked and what do you feel it has done for your mental or even physical health?

Can you think of specific examples?

Can you think of any projects you would like to work on, or found yourself wishing your therapist would guide you more with?

Any thoughts, insights, and advice are greatly appreciated! Thank you.
Cassie

 

[open eyes]

Hi! I was introduced to art therapy at a psych hospital about a year ago, & in January I started seeing an outpatient art therapist regularly. I'd love to share some of the projects I've done that helped me the most.

-making a monster out of clay that represents my fears, & then building some way to contain it
-sculpting an animal with strong qualities that represents me
-making a collage of images & words that represented being out of control, & then a second collage that represented things that make me feel in control
-painting/coloring in an outline of a human body, using colors to represent where "bad energy" was, then a second image depicting where the "good energy" was
-decorating a shoe box, the inside representing my past & the outside representing what I want to be

I've done tons more, if you're interested send me a message!

 

[Joan]

I am a huge fan of art therapy, creativity....I learned that I can express what I cannot articulate with words through art...I have learned I actually have some talent...I have done many "assigned" projects which usually spur many other thoughts and projects. Art hadbeem a life saver for me. survivorcreativity.com

 

[Hashi]

I love art therapy, and I'm glad people like you are training to be therapists. I do collage mostly, and some drawing with wax crayons and ink pencils. Collage is great because you don't need to be good at art. I do trauma art (expressing aspects of trauma or my feelings about it), healing art (like visual affirmations, representing safety, protection and healing), and soothing art (decorative art and craft, for soothing and distraction). I also do some art/visual journalling.

When it comes to any kind of therapy, there's a big difference between a general therapist working with someone with PTSD and a trauma specialist. I've done art therapy with trauma specialists only, and I wouldn't see a general art therapist (ie one who hasn't specifically done a lot of training and gained closely supervised experience in working with trauma survivors).

The reason for that is the high risk for a trauma survivor to be retraumatised, get overwhelmed, have panic attacks, dissociate, experience other kinds of splitting or become suicidal. There are also often huge issues around shame, trust and attachment. Seeing a general therapist, however good, dedicated and well-meaning they are, can actually be damaging and isn't a good idea for either client or therapist.

So having said that, if art therapy/creative therapy is done with a trauma specialist then I think it's very healing. In my experience, there are four approaches which are all needed to heal from trauma - somatic, creative, symbolic and cognitive. Art therapy works on both the creative and symbolic levels.

For me, creative therapy means I can express and release things that I couldn't put into words, there's some detachment which makes it feel safer, and it can be contained (I always work in a sketchbook which I can close, and then I put in a zip up case which I padlock closed).

It also helps me a lot to use symbols. I often use animals to represent aspects of myself (like a wounded horse, dead albatross, or fighting tiger). Then the background/things around will also be symbolic, like an icy landscape or a fire.

As well as being a relief to be able to express things, this lets me take something too difficult/distressing to talk about, represent it symbolically, explore it and talk about it symbolically with my therapist. That lets me process things that would be too disturbing otherwise. Afterwards, I can look at them and talk about them on a more cognitive level if needed.

Regarding projects, I'm very self-directed so my therapists have followed my lead and my pace - which has been important to me. But a workbook which I've done twice and which helped me a lot, including with exercises, is "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron. Do you know it? I really recommend working with it.

 

[casseve]

Wow these are all awesome responses and so helpful/inspiring to me! I've been a witness to times when art can really improve a person's well being, and have heard from teachers and doctors that art really saves lives....but its more important to me to hear honest answers from the people that actually USE art therapy for themselves, and have worked with an art therapist before.

To Open Eyes--- those projects sound so great! I love the monster out of clay one, and the map of the human body.
Joan--Your art is very expressive! The textiles are beautiful also....love seeing art from all different mediums.
Hashi--- I'm definitely going to check out that book. Your response is so helpful for me....I could see a huge use for art therapy with victims of trauma. I hope to work along these lines, and with children also.

This is important for me to hear, because sometimes I fear patients will mock art therapy and think its just "arts and crafts" like for children or something, and they might not take it seriously or see any benefit to working in this way.
Hearing what you have to say reaffirms my belief in art therapy, and makes me hopeful for the people that DO use it and need to express feelings/thoughts ways other than with words. I really appreciate your insights! :)

 

[Deleted member 12723]

When I was in therapy I had drawing journals and they were very helpful to me. It also got me in touch with my creative side and I enjoyed it very much.

I learned about art therapy with children and learned so much. I highly recommend it as it is very beneficial and you get to play a little too.

 

[Joan]

I think one of the most important things for me was to let go the fear that it would not be art...need to be perfect...worried what others would think...I had to let all that go and concentrate on just communicating the message I needed to, conveying my emotions...expressing what I cannot articulate,

I agree with Hashi "The artists way" is a great book.

Remember it is you that matters...it is you that are healing...screw what others think

 

[Friday]

I've never done art therapy... But part of my education is most of a BFA.
Sculpture & Photography.

Photography actually nixes about 99% of my PTSD in public problems. With a camera attached to you like another limb, no one twitches, no matter how batsheet crazy I get (unless I'm outside a bank, banks don't like people with cameras). Climbing up on stuff, dropping down, being places I'm not supposed to be, staring at something for a really long time, constantly looking around, hand going for my belt/bag). It's all just "getting the shot". Just another photographer. And with digital, there are gazillions of would be photographers. It's like instant-blend.

Sculpture is less practical. But, yeah. I've done some really personal pieces. Both hard & sweet moments. Also juxtaposed ones: how it looks vs how it feels. Fun stuff.

 

[Chava]

I work with a somatic and trauma focused therapist but she supports my artwork and has let me bring in my art journal or send images. She's pretty creative herself, very open to using symbolic language. I've thought of working with an art therapist but for now the body stuff and trauma focus seems #1...but art can be a great support for keeping me present and kind of playfully exploring where I'm at. Oil paints slow me down and I love the depth and colors...I work mainly in scribbly gestures...abstract, energized, feels like something coming from my deep true self....very grounding and just makes me very content in the present.

I've also done many portraits (not 'self' exactly but a sort of abstract version of myself perhaps...self-portraits wouldn't give me the safe expressive distance as a totally made up character that slightly resembles me, so people say). It's been helpful to understand my "self" and where it's at....eyes rolled back in head and body broken off, or bodies that are plantlike, or faces and bodies that are very quiet in an abstractly noisy, cluttered environment...heads with extremely complicated hair, distorted faces, distorted or overly long necks with painful throats, or little bubbles and shapes to outline the distance I feel between my self and my body (like for a while I felt like I existed just a few inches beyond my skin and used collage and drawing to create this visually). I also have my very own little visual vocabulary of painful marks and symbols, as well as ways of using drawing and collage to create connection, spaces, or boundaries.

When I was in a bad place I could cut up pages in my art journal instead of cutting myself (so cutting parts f my "self" without hurting my body...don't recommend it really...but my journal was like an extension of myself...safe place to work and explore and be my self...I could hold it, keep it on my pillow, or put it out of sight for a while....take good care of it or shred it up...). I still have it in hiding and I'm totally disinterested right now, which says something too...I'm a bit stuck oir distrusting of myself or the universe and my journal is too personally affirming or something....

My profile image here is a little crop of a drawing of a throat. I doodle and draw without thinking, which makes it helpful for me. I don't know what it "means" but in hindsight I can look back, or I could bring up with my therapist...like there is an area of order and and area of chaos and pain. Maybe that I sorted out an eating disorder but often can't speak or express my feelings (also could be abstraction of intubation pain and chaos, which I've had a few times throughout life).

I wanted to study art but just managed music alongside loads of treatment. I think it's great you want to help people use art to heal. Almost every kid draws and colors. Then we grow up and decide we aren't artists, so why bother. But there is so much solace and exploration and room for transformatiin through art, whether we have great technique or not. I still have all the things I colored when I was in the hospital as a little kid. Coloring and painting with that therapist were the only good memories I had...but being able to color, scribble, and create felt very powerful. I made everything red!! So sick, but so vibrant and determined.

Best wishes and thanks for the good work you do....

 

[passerine]

I am actually working on a graduate degree in Expressive Therapies, which incorporates visual art as well as drama, music, dance, writing and play into therapy. I got into the field because the arts have been critical in helping me heal and I have had a lot of experience using it in my own therapy. Even before I began treatment I used art to help me manage the overwhelming things that I was going through and I felt like my entire undergraduate experience at art school was mostly just me doing my own therapy. During treatment for my eating disorder and later the PTSD I worked with both art and music therapists, mainly in a group setting, and found it incredibly helpful. I now work with a Social Worker who incorporates some play and art into our work together. I do a lot of movement, drawing, painting, etc. in my sessions with him and am given creative "homework" assignments to complete in between sessions, which keeps me going. Some examples: drawing my safe place, keeping a visual journal, creating a "comfort box" (place to keep soothing things) as well as a "containment box" (place to hold triggering material that needs to be processed at a later time). Making masks with which I can have a dialogue with has also been an exercise I have used, which is sort of a combination of art and drama therapy. All of these things have helped me find my voice and have made sharing in therapy much less scary. Good stuff.

 

[Yugogypsy]

I wanted to respond to your post with regards to art therapy and PTSD. I'm bi - lingual (English and ASL) and I have a MA degree in Theater (BA in psych with emphasis in Women Studies)... I work in the communication field (teach, act and direct). My communication skills have been awesome until I had a situation after situation which caused me to shut down my awesome communication skills. I drew and painted. Posting it somewhere helps with the sense of "accomplishments" and "success" while being in my own "prison".

With my recent traumatic situation, if I'm feeling safe and grounded, I use theater. Right now as I'm writing this, I have a "partner in crime" in creating personal performances - we've done this before and a lot of my precious work in my stories/poetries and creative communication have been pretty much trashed after a traumatic experience. So now, I have to start from scratch. I couldn't use the former monologues / pieces for my auditions or I fall to pieces, ending up visiting the toilet - gags. If I'm to tell my story, it feels heavy with anger and maybe most people wouldn't like to hear it - probably would have had a full house who walked out with disappointments. There's a bit of fear in that - walking out means your story is NOT worth the seat warming and the money to see the show. I'm experimenting with "retelling" my story without making myself sick. Also exploring in performing something very unrelated to my situation - comedy, short skit or something else of a good distraction for now with my "partner in crime" who is a professional dancer and have acted with me numerous times. It has to be with someone trusting...

Just had to speak up.

 

[sun seeker]

This thread caught my eye. My experience with art therapy is a bit different from that of some other members. I worked with therapist for about a year and a half and we did art most weeks during that time. Then much later I worked with a different therapist for seven months and we did a little art therapy but it wasn't the main focus. I have to say I feel it made very little difference in my case. Looking back, I think that because of the nature of my problems - CPTSD, attachment issues - I can so easily latch on to whatever another person is expecting of me that I would "give" the therapist what I thought they wanted or expected of me. Another reason is probably that when strong emotions came up while doing the art, my focus would become trying to contain them rather than letting them out in a supportive environment because what I feel is so big and so noisy, it would have taken a sound-proofed room and a therapist who really knew how to help me feel safe expressing those emotions. I don't know whether there are ways an art therapist could work with those issues that the people I worked with weren't aware of, or whether art was the wrong approach or I needed something else before being ready to work that way. I don't mean to be negative or discouraging because I know art therapy does help lots of people. This is just to give you some things to think about; maybe there is a way of working around this. I'd be interested to know your thoughts.