Saturday, March 26, 2016

How Art Therapy Can Contribute To The Healing Process

By Deborah Murphy


People benefit from different types of therapy programs, depending on the situation. Some folks prefer to get something off their chest by talking about the issue. However, often they don't realize how involved the problem is and in a case like this the psychologist may suggest art therapy. This is something that has advance over the years.

Both adults and children are encouraged to have a look at this type of creativity and how it can work on healing and improving their situation. This especially helps those who have problems on a day to day basis who are having trouble with depression and anxiety or panic attacks. Some people find it difficult to talk to a therapist.

Art therapists in Camarrillo, CA are trained especially to know what to look for when they assign different projects and assignments. A child may draw their family home without any doors or it could be dark and stormy. The same child may present their family with expressions of anger. This could be an indication of abuse.

Expressing this in another way is certainly going to help them persevere and often reach a level where they feel a sense of self compassion. This is important for trauma patients who develop a lot of symptoms as a result of what they have been through. Often working in a group can be helpful, but there are patients that will benefit from working in a one on one situation.

This will also be a safety net for the patient. A therapist who is working with someone who has suicide thoughts always has to work on what is safe in their lives and this will bring them back to reality, and out of the negative mode. It has been proven by working in this creative process, the two parts of the brain start to do the healing work. This is something that talk therapy can't do.

There are a lot of methods that therapists like this use to see what the problem is and how they can grow. Children are very honest with what they draw and therapists are able to recognize this through their training. For example, a child who has been abused may draw a family portrait in black with storm in the background.

Therapists have been trained to look for certain things and will sometimes talk to the folk about what they were painting or drawing and how they were feeling at the time. Sometimes it is feelings of rage, and other times it was hopelessness which were revealed in their work. This can relate to someone with suicidal thoughts.

It is something that the therapist will encourage these patients to turn to because it is a great sense of release, and the negative thoughts, the despair and the hopelessness is transferred into their work. They can turn to this form of therapy at any point. The more they work through their feelings like this, the more they will start to improve.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment