Art therapy involves articulating complex thoughts and feelings through making art. It’s a relatively new, experimental treatment for mental health issues, whereby a trained therapist guides you towards creates something that reflects how you feel, and helps you interpret your creations.
In contrast to this comes talking therapy, the one we all know (and maybe love). It involves speaking through your thoughts with a counsellor qualified to make sense of them and identify how you could reframe them. Though they range in type, from CBT to interpersonal, they all have proven benefits for sufferers of various mental illnesses, and a large number of people are using them for treatment today.
This doesn’t mean therapy doesn’t have much going for it. Emotions, particularly surrounding trauma, can be difficult to talk about. Art gives you an outlet for feelings that are too uncomfortable or distressing to put into words – most beneficial for those struggling with self-harm and psychosis, according to research. And of course, letting the emotions out is the first step to processing and digesting them, which is the ultimate aim of therapy.
More generally, creativity is unquestionably good for your mental health. It is relieving and distracting, it is nourishment for the soul. Creative expression is a gentle and refreshing coping method to replace the maladaptation of mental illness.
Because art, by nature, is emotion. The entire reason Matisse’s bedrooms shower you with summery contentment, why Picasso’s Ironing Woman casts a shadow on your bones, and why Magritte makes your stomach squirt and frizz, is that art is emotion. If you haven’t already seen their artwork, by the way, I highly recommend it. Creativity allows you to put the things inside of you into reality when everyday words won’t do. No wonder art and therapy go hand-in-hand. But in cases of mental illness, hand-in-hand is not enough. Sometimes the soul needs more than nourishment, it needs a systematic dissection of your thoughts to reshape them into productive patterns. Though art therapy can expose emotions, it risks them not being properly processed, which is the aim of true mental health treatment. As a complementary activity, sure. But art therapy on its own just doesn’t cut, or stick, or paint it.