Art Therapy
What Is Art Therapy?
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Art As Therapy
Art therapy co-founder Edith Kramer developed her idea of art therapy based on her understanding as a professional artist and art educator of how the creative process is healing all on it’s own. She believed that analysis wasn’t necessary for deep healing using art, and that it was the product that showed the level of healing via sublimation by the aesthetic value. For her, good art had harmony that depicted the integration of balance between tensions, evocative power, and inner consistency. She focused on providing a space where clients could intensely focus on the making of art without her interruption with analysis or interpretation.
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Art Psychotherapy
Art therapy co-founder Margaret Naumburg developed the idea of art therapy as a form of psychotherapy. As a psychodynamically trained therapist she understood that the subconscious speaks in images and symbols. She was the first to then understand that the client’s own interpretation of the meanings in their art is more important than some outside “expert.” The product was not valued with relationship to aesthetics or as art so much as a medium for the processing. The analysis of the artwork was a necessary part of art psychotherapy.
How I use art therapy
Like all creative and expressive therapies, there is an integration between the modality and larger theories of psychotherapy. Above are examples of the two original approaches to art therapy.
I tend to use aspects of both art as therapy and art psychotherapy, depending on the client’s treatment goals and the phase of therapy. I like starting by supporting clients in getting to know different mediums (oil pastels, markers, watercolor, mixed media, etc) so they learn what mediums they like for different forms of expression and exploration.
I then work with the client to begin practicing the process of visual expression of emotional and mental concepts. This can be challenging as the older we are the less practice we have usually had.
You do not need to be an artist for this to be beneficial!
Art then becomes like another therapist that facilitates increased self-understanding, ability to name and express emotions and thoughts, and exploration of subconscious beliefs that impact the client and their treatment goals.
I grew up in a family of artists (my brother’s art here) and from a very young age I can remember spending time in art galleries or pouring over the art in kids books. I grew up strongly valuing representational art, but it wasn’t until my adolescence that I began to use art as a way to express and process my emotions.
Since then I have experimented with just about every medium as a way of better understanding my emotions and larger concepts. I have realized that I understand complex human experiences visually, and I will often take years to work on an art piece as I live and better understand myself and my world.
Why I love art therapy
All artwork on this page belongs to and were created by Julie Brenneise. Check out the link to see more of my artwork.
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