The inner world of a human being is rich in nuances. The word is a tool that allows you to externalize what you carry inside. However, you also have other resources to express your emotional universe. For example, the fears, blockages, desires, feelings and illusions that live inside you. Art is not only a pleasure that produces aesthetic emotions in the direct observation of the beauty represented in a work.
Art acquires a component of therapeutic introspection through art therapy. The objective to be achieved in an exercise of these characteristics is not to make an excellent creation from an artistic point of view, but to encourage the expression of the protagonist. In this article in Psychology-Online we reflect on this question, What is art therapy: exercises, techniques and benefits.
What is art therapy?
Art therapy is a discipline that integrates the resource of art as a means of emotional release for the benefit of well-being through personalized communication through the use of color and shapes. In short, art linked to psychology and .
Art therapy courses
The professionals competent in delivering workshops on this topic have been trained as art therapists. That is, they have comprehensive knowledge of this discipline in which creativity becomes the raw material to enhance comprehensive well-being.
Art therapy exercises for adults
Below, we give you ideas of some dynamics that you can put into practice:
- paint mandalas. One of the dynamics that you can exercise is painting mandalas, experiencing in this activity the freedom of creating from calmness through the color technique. Discover here.
- Paint a natural landscape. In your closest environment you can discover charming places that catch your attention with their essential beauty in every season of the year. During those months defined by pleasant temperatures, you can go out to the park, sit on a bench and draw. If you have a garden area at home or from one of the windows of your home you also see an attractive landscape, you can be inspired by its beauty.
- make one visual creation from a poem that has inspired you from an author you admire or from your own verses. Word and image constantly feed each other since it is also possible to do the opposite exercise of writing a poem based on the evocative essence of a painting.
- Just as a writer may experience difficulty when faced with a blank page, from the point of view of art therapy you can perform the exercise of placing yourself before the blank page to reflect from your own point of view how you feel now.
Art therapy techniques: how does art therapy work?
There are different art therapy techniques that can be carried out. Below we list some of them:
- The creative process of art therapy through sculpture.
- Art therapy through the use of nature resources. For example, making drawings or writing words in the sand on the beach.
- The portrait technique. Through a portrait painted by an art therapist during a session on this topic, the protagonist of this image receives this information about himself through the gaze of the other.
- The phototherapy It is a manifestation of the protagonist’s biography with a high emotional component through the selection of memories in the form of images. Photographs have a connection with the person even when they are not photos that reflect a family or friendship moment. For example, a landscape photograph has the gaze of its author.
- Visual metaphors. Plastic expression also takes on a therapeutic approach through communication through drawing or painting. Metaphors can not only be present in literary language or in NLP, they also acquire a visible form through the creation associated with lines, shapes and color.
What therapeutic benefits does art therapy offer?: goals of therapy
What therapeutic benefits does this discipline offer?
- This experience is nutritious to prevent, reduce or. The dynamics of art therapy increase the level of conscious attention of those who are immersed in that creative process. By paying attention to the immediate present, the mind distances itself from the focus of worries or mental rumination.
- Self-esteem. The personal satisfaction of creation itself is not only motivated by the fulfillment of the final objective, that is, the goal, but also by the learning process associated with this experience. Each creation is unique and unrepeatable, just like each person.
- Expression of feelings and emotions. Sometimes it happens that the person does not find the right words to name what happens to them internally. Art transcends words and complements this way of expression through its own language.
- Self-knowledge. When a person writes a diary, he can reread what he wrote as a manifestation of his current situation at the time (or resume this reading in the future to connect with the past). This introspection is also present in art therapy since the author observes a manifestation of himself in the creation made.
- Creativity development. Imagination and creativity are qualities that sometimes remain dormant under the syndrome of constant busyness. However, when you feed your creative self you are freer and happier.
Therefore, art therapy is a discipline that increases creativity through conscious presence in the connection with the here and now that starts from emotional expression.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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