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ART THERAPY AND IT’S USES

ART therapy is a blended field of therapeutic practice that combines art and psychology. It utilises the creative process, artistic techniques, and external artwork to support individuals to develop self awareness, explore emotions and acknowledge unresolved conflicts and trauma. 

This psychological therapy has not been in use till the 1940s. After that the doctors observed and realised that the people suffering from psychological disorders are much more expressive through these artworks and drawings than verbally or written, which led many to explore the use of art as a healing strategy.After which this occupied a major place in the therapeutic field of psychology.


The 3 main elements of art therapy are creating artwork, reflecting, and connecting to personal insights.

There are few mentioned ART therapy techniques which help ones to overcome their problems: Collage, Colouring, Doodling and scribbling, Drawing, Finger painting, Painting, Photography, Sculpting, Working with clay

ART therapy can be used in a wide range to treat severe disorders as it combines the most useful pieces of several psychotherapies, including EMDR, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy(CBT), Gestalt, Psychodynamic therapy. In anxiety, depression, eating disorder, cancer, emotional difficulties, stress, PTSD, substance abuse disorder these different techniques of art therapies can be used.


According to American Psychiatric Association, ART therapy are beneficial to improve one’s :

  • Cognitive and sensorimotor functions.
  • Self-esteem and self-awareness.
  • Enhance social skills.
  • Build emotional strength.
  • Resolve conflict and distress.
  • Encourage insights into situations that are causing issues.

From the above explanations it can be concluded that ART therapy is a therapeutic approach that heals a person by getting into and revealing an  individual’s deepest thoughts and feelings through art. This therapy is applicable to people of all ages, which is most advantageous because childrens are incapable of conveying their each and every feelings to the counselor so with the help of this it is easier for the psychologist to understand the underneath problems of the childrens. It is also good for individuals who do not consider themselves good in art and also on individuals on whom other therapies are found ineffective.


The effectiveness of this therapy can be observed within one to two weeks and its sessions are also not so long as in long sessions it can be observed that the patients are not much involved compared to the start of the sessions. So considering all these points it can be said that the ART therapy are effective in most of the psychological problems and which are also effective for the individuals.


For children, this therapy is most useful and effective as they naturally are very creative and innovative and they find it way easier to express themselves through these artworks. And for  psychologists also it is convenient to reframe their behaviour or to treat certain disorders of children like ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), Eating disorders (bulimia, anorexia nervosa), PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and so on. As in the ADHD disorder children are always  engaged in certain activities and it gets much difficult to handle them in talk therapy or through CBT so for them in art therapies they are engaged in a certain activity so it becomes easier to handle them through that. For childrens this therapy is also very useful as it makes the children more relaxed and increases their sense of self control which are very necessary in their growing age.


For adults also this therapy is very useful to treat certain disorders like schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, Multiple Personality Disorder(MPD) as in these disorders they doesn't express themselves much through words so to understand them psychologists needs a medium through their true emotions can be expressed without any filtering to that as there are also some cases where patients doesn't completely describe what they feel because of the fear of any judgment from the psychologist.


~ Isha Gupta (Intern at YTT)

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