What Is Art Therapy and How Does It Work? An Austin, TX Art Therapist Shares Insights
Art therapy is a regulated mental health profession. That being said, it’s practiced in many different ways, depending on the training of the art therapist and their theoretical leanings—and their place of practice and the population they work with.
Art therapy isn’t just “one size fits all’; it’s a diverse professional field that treats everything from anxiety to trauma. But how does art therapy help people recover from or transform the way they feel and the way they engage with the world around them?
How does art therapy in Austin, TX work?
Art Therapy Serves Diverse Clients in Diverse Settings
I’m an art therapist who’s been practicing for over 30 years, and before I started my private practice, I worked with people in behavioral health, correctional, educational, medical, and social services settings. In all those settings I had to modify my approach to suit the needs of a system as well as the needs of the clients I worked with; no two were the same.
But all across the board I noticed certain therapeutic elements that were effective no matter what the situation was. This Austin, TX art therapist is happy to share some insights in answering the question “what is art therapy and how does it work?”
My Experience Informs the Way I Think about “What is Art Therapy and How Does It Work?”
It can help to know about the particular perspective of the person who’s answering your question for you, as it flavors the information you’re receiving. My training in art therapy was completed under the mentorship of two art therapy pioneers who developed a robust framework for organizing and orchestrating treatment in a way that honors the uniqueness of each individual client.
I Understand Things through the Framework I Use for Art Therapy in Austin, TX
This framework is called the Expressive Therapies Continuum, and it follows the way a person’s nervous system functions. Some people orient to the world through their body. Some orient to the world through their feelings, and some orient through their thoughts.
No way of orienting to the world is better than the other ways. But the way a person orients to the world has a lot to do with the way they balance internal needs and external demands, and when this balance gets thrown off because of things like anxiety and trauma, art therapy practiced within the Expressive Therapies Continuum framework can help them begin to find homeostasis again and even function more effectively than they did in the first place.
Art Therapy in Austin, TX Attunes to Embodied Data for Creating Change
Art therapy is an embodied form of psychotherapy, meaning that it enlists a person’s physical self to express, reconfigure, and integrate nervous system information. What kind of information is this? In a nutshell, physical, emotional, and intellectual data.
Using the hands and eyes—or somatosensory processing and visual perception, to be more scientific about it—to connect a person with their internal world for making the invisible visible and the unknown known can give rise to changes in how they process and experience life.
Art Therapy in Austin, TX Can Make a Client Feel “Felt”
The art therapist will be guided by accepted psychological theory as well as input in the form of the client’s artmaking process and resulting art products; these will signify opportunities for initiating important shifts in art materials and methods that can support the client’s unique path toward recovery and transformation.
No two art therapy clients are the same, so it’s unlikely that an art therapist would ignore a person’s artmaking process and art products when making clinical decisions about next steps. Attuning to the data in the artmaking process and art products can help the art therapist develop a collaborative connection with the client, and this allows the client to feel “felt”.
Art Therapy in Austin, TX Embodies Responsiveness in the Process of Change
Feeling “felt” is an important indicator of therapy that’s on the right track. Unlike talk therapy, where there are only two primary channels of information (verbal and nonverbal) for a therapist to work with when establishing a collaborative connection, art therapy offers four channels (verbal, nonverbal, the artmaking process, and the resulting art products) for responding in a client-centered way.
Responsiveness is essential; feeling “felt” tends to be associated with positive change in therapy. And art therapy can embody responsiveness through next steps that dovetail with whatever the client is expressing and how they are expressing it.
It’s Important to Get Art Therapy in Austin, TX from a Quaified Art Therapist
Selecting appropriate materials and methods to help move someone toward their goals is a skill that takes the client’s current level of functioning into consideration and expands upon it instead of making the individual jump through hoops that have very little to do with their current experience of life.
For this reason it’s essential to receive art therapy services from an educated and credentialed art therapist rather than a talk therapist who uses art in their practice. The latter doesn’t have the training to move beyond one-size-fits-all projects and directives that are not uniquely tailored to support an individual through their personal process of change.
Do You Need an Art Therapist in Austin, TX to Help You in Ways that Words Can’t?
Art therapy is a legitimate form of treatment that can help people go where words don’t go and resolve issues and conditions that are deeper than language and its limitations. Are you ready to explore how art therapy with me can facilitate changes in the way you orient to the world and find balance between internal needs and external demands?
I specialize in supporting people who are dealing with
anxiety
attachment issues
burnout
depression
grief or loss
self-esteem issues
spirituality issues
trauma
Art Therapy in Austin, TX Can Create New Possibilities for Your Life
Contact me to learn more about how art therapy within the framework of the Expressive Therapies Continuum can help you express, reconfigure, and integrate on your way to resolution and transformation.
I offer online art therapy for adults in Texas, Indiana, and Arizona, and I would be happy to partner with you to create new possibilities and new ways of experiencing life.