Art Therapy: Benefits and Drawbacks

Introduction:

Most people have enthusiasm and joy while drawing, painting, molding clay, doodling, or sculpting a sculpture. A most cheerful intervention to address and overcome distress is through such artistic approaches. Art therapy came into evolution in 1940 yet became universal in the late 1970s, since then, it has been entrenched with the idea of healing through handcraft. Art therapy is a kind of psychotherapy that helps individuals define, express and sort out their inner concerns.

What Is Art Therapy?

As the name suggests, art therapy is the use of creativity as psychotherapy to treat mental health conditions. First, it aids in expressing through visual art media. In addition, the intervention gains an opportunity to explore oneself with an art therapist. Eventually, art therapy allows people to apprehend and manage their symptoms and conflicts. In simple terms, art therapy improves physical, mental, and social well-being through art and craft.

What Are the Other Artistic Therapies?

Like art therapy, there prevails a variety of creative forms of therapy structured and organized to treat mental disorders in an artistic way.

• Music therapy.

• Dance therapy.

• Written therapy.

• Poetry therapy.

• Drama therapy.

• Expressive therapy.

• Visual art therapy.

• Narrative therapy.

• Adventure-based therapy.

How Does Art Therapy Work?

Art therapy is a medium for people to express their feelings and emotions, and with persistent engagement in the art, one can gain a perception of their mental health. Hence, the art therapist picks one of the techniques to discover the client. Firstly, the therapist will ask to draw something that is distressing for the client. With this creative picture, the therapist comes to a conclusion regarding the goal of the therapy, the treatment outline chart, the type of technique to be advised, and the number of sessions. Art therapy is thus manipulated in three ways.

• Analytic Art Therapy: It is derived from the outlooks of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic theory. This kind focuses on the view of the client and therapist through an analysis. Moreover, it addresses the ideas that are shared between them through art.

• Art Psychotherapy: This concentrates on the views of psychotherapists and their way of analysis. In addition, art psychotherapy focuses on how the therapist verbally explores the client’s work.

• Art as Therapy: When highlighting the client’s art is not enough at times, the therapist directs the attention to the whole creation process.

• Techniques: The therapist evaluates the art, the process, and the client through various executive approaches, and gets an insight into the mood, emotions, and sentiments by virtue of pen, pencil, clay, crayons, paint, sand, or other materials. Hence, the therapist utilizes the techniques to analyze and treat the client.

• Coloring.

• Crayoning.

• Drawing.

• Painting.

• Sculpting.

• Doodling.

• Scribbling.

• Playing with molding clay.

• Pot making.

• Collages.

• Photography.

• Making cards and posters.

Where Can Art Therapy Be Implemented?

Art therapists are the professionals who implement art therapy to alleviate symptoms while reinforcing self-esteem, self-consciousness, and personal growth. It is implemented with a wide range of other interventions like cognitive, group, family, behavior, narrative, self-centered, and gestalt to treat the following conditions;

• General diseases and illnesses.

• Cancer symptoms.

• Depression.

• Stress.

• Anxiety.

• Dementia.

• Autism spectrum disorder.

• Schizophrenia.

• Eating disorders.

• Post-traumatic stress disorder.

• Childhood trauma.

• Aging-allied issues.

• Personality disorders.

• Family or relationship conflicts.

• Substance use disorders.

• Grief and bereavement.

• Other symptoms of cognitive disorders.

In addition, art therapy helps conquer certain circumstances that are as given below;

• Younger ones facing learning difficulties.

• Children with issues in their academics, behavior, and socialization.

• People undergo severe stress that interferes with their daily bustles.

• Grown-ups encountering traumatic events from their childhood.

• People with brain injury who require a change.

• Individuals who have been through abuse, neglect, and violence at any event in life.

What Are the Benefits of Art Therapy?

Art therapy engages people with fun and excitement throughout the session in an egged-on theme. Art therapy not just relieves the symptoms but enhances one’s self. Hence, the intervention holds a handful of benefits creatively. By implementing creative ideas through drawing, painting, and sculpting, one can see betterment in their mental and sensory-motor parts. Besides, many people reported as they could apprehend inflation in their self-esteem and self-worth. Finally, it paves the way for healthy relationships by solving conflicts and biases. Kindness, humanism, creativity, goodwill, and self-fulfillment are considered ethics and tenets of art intervention.

Is Art Therapy Effective?

Art therapy is as effective as other psychotherapies whilst it redesigns humankind’s ideology on life. The effectiveness is hence proved with the succeeding shreds of evidence based on studies and clinical trials.

• A study conducted among individuals with trauma proved that they have a consequential reduction in symptoms and depression.

• A trial-based study carried out with older adults in a nursing home conceived a desperate change. It alleviated their depression and low self-esteem.

• Many adults striving for cancer both physically and mentally reviewed as they could feel a sound change in their quality of life over distorted negative thoughts. And they also address the effectiveness of the therapy over cognitive symptoms.

• Recently, researchers, through a study, conveyed the effectiveness of art therapy in treating schizophrenia.

• People who benefited from art therapy validated that the therapy helped to express themselves. They also added that art therapy helped improve cognitive health and interpersonal relationships.

Drawbacks: The effectiveness of the art therapy gains over the evidence, though. First, the treatment lacks enough validation. Subsequently, a few people find it ineffective when they feel complications in engaging in a cooperative manner, and even though the therapy does rely on artistic masterpieces, some note themselves as not having creative and artistic abilities. They may find that they need certain artistic qualities to involve in art therapy.

Conclusion:

Art and illustrative expression give voice to inner emotions. So, based on certainty, art therapy proceeds with good communication, empowerment, and social interactions. Art therapy is considered a unique discipline that includes creative ways of expression by means of visual art media. Moreover, it works with people of all ages, not relying on age, sex, race, and other discriminations. Hence, art therapy can benefit little ones, adults, couples, families, and groups. It is a great option for addressing one’s emotions, concerns, and cognitive issues.