What is Art Therapy?
Art Therapy is a mental health profession that utilises the creative process of artmaking within a confidential and safe therapeutic relationship to support emotional wellbeing and develop inner resources. As an accredited art therapist with IACAT, I apply psychological theory to the creative process of art making to foster growth and discover meaning.
Art therapy offers a transformative path for processing emotions and fostering personal growth, through self-expression and self-discovery regardless of artistic skill.
Art has the power to reveal what words cannot always express, allowing us to access deeper layers of emotion, intuition, and personal insight. Offering a gentle and supportive way to navigate the emotional landscape of many of life’s challenges, whether that be major life transitions, loss or uncertainty, grief, living with illness, feeling stuck or personal growth, art therapy can support emotional resilience, help express complex emotions, reclaim agency and reconnect with your inner vitality.
Art therapy is a creative process that utilises art materials to explore feelings, thoughts and emotions that can be hard to put into words. Art therapy is a transformative process; through its symbolic nature it provides a pathway for the ‘transcendent function’ to operate. The creative process, including the making of art, allows for the emergence of unconscious material, which can then be consciously engaged with, leading to psychological development and integration. Each mark, smear, smudge, trembling line or a burst of colour -all are honoured as expressions of the soul seeking expression. There is no need to fix or interpret too quickly. Whether what emerges is buried grief, deep anger, or unexpected joy, all are welcome.
“Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.”
CARL JUNG
“In order for the new to be born, to allow the new identity to emerge, the individual needs to let go of old ego structures no longer valid, entering into the liminal state of chaos. Entering into formlessness to bring the gold back from the unconscious, must be done with self-regulation, whilst incorporating a neurobiological perspective that integrates both sides of the brain’s hemispheres to contain and avoid overwhelm. The goal of mask work in art therapy is to create the face of this new identity.”
SARAH BARGUS
