Art therapy is a type of creative therapy that allows people who are seeking help for their mental health to express themselves through different types of art forms and allows medical professionals to analyze patients’ physiological and emotional undertones through the works they created. It has been useful for patients to work on understanding their feelings and behavior better as well as resolve possible deeper problems.

For centuries, art has been used as a form of self expression, communication, and healing. Art therapy was considered a type of health program in the 1940’s. It became an option for helping those who have mental illnesses because medical professionals noticed that they would often express themselves through different types of artwork. Since then, art therapy has become very helpful in the therapeutic field.

What is great about this type of therapy is that you do not need any artistic talent or experience to create works of art during the sessions. The main purpose is to act as a healing strategy and find connections to the client’s life and their creative choices.

Art therapy can help treat conditions such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, mental issues from family or relationships, post-traumatic stress disorder, stress, and many more. Different types of art used in this type of therapy are painting, drawing, sculpting, collage, and photography.

When people look at what they have created, their therapists may ask questions like what kind of emotions they were feeling while making their art work and how they feel about it after. One of the ways where therapists can connect with their patients is by providing some prompts to think about and how the patients can reflect on it. Some examples are creating sculptures of their family out of clay, telling a story through a photo collage, or engaging in a free association about different works of art. Through this process, the art therapist could work with the patient in creating a plan to help them further by creating different forms of art.

Even though art therapy might seem like a great concept that you might want to seek out, keep in mind that it is not for everyone, and make sure that it is something that you feel can actually help your mental health.