Hello Beautiful people, today we will discover what Art therapy is….

Art can be said to be – and can be used as – the externalized map of our interior self.

Peter London, No More Secondhand Art

Now before we learn together how to be honest with ourselves to discover our feelings, I prefer to talk about Art Therapy, how art can heal our soul through dance, music, writing, painting, theater, or a mix of everything.

I have been painting since I was 3 years old and I have never stopped and yet I have the same purpose of finding happiness with colors and shapes and enjoying my moments.

It’s not just me, almost all of us as a child, we enjoyed creating and making crayon drawings, cut-paper, and collages, playing with sands at the beach or park, etc.

You may already hear about art therapy or know some people who are visiting art therapists or have the experience of it by yourself.

Art therapy is a dynamic therapy, and you own the treatment through art.

One way of defining art therapy is based on the idea that art is a means of symbolic communication. 

But to know the meaning of these symbols we need to know more about the background. Many colors, words, behavior, and even family relationship in many countries or cultures are diverse. 

So, we never can give a common and global symbolic meaning for a certain color nor shape, or character.

Everything in art therapy is personalized. Helping people understand their art expression can certainly be part of art therapy but the process of making art is in the same manner important.

We are going to discuss the process in the next chapter, what do you think about it? Please let us know what you want us to talk about with all the high expectations of being good, creative, and professional like a real artist mostly we don’t start any art project.

But many of you already have some hobbies like photography, drawing, diary, … you name it.

All of these activities are ways to pacify yourself from daily tension or stress or sadness or anything that is coming between you and your happiness.

Self-expression is a way that your soul finds to use creative powers help to heal yourself.

You may experience the therapeutic side of art or you may not, it depends on your definition of art, you may think of art only as decoration, entertainment, or something to keep in a museum as part of history, or you may look at art as a childish way of exploring and hobby. 

But we can agree that art can be all of these definitions and even more.

To know more about how art can heal your soul, you need to open your mind, stop exposing your old opinions and start to adopt new ones.

Art therapy has grown from the concept of art images can help us to understand who we are, and to express feelings that words cannot. With art therapy, you can learn self – understanding.

Art therapy can be used for a variety of populations including children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly, and also, it’s showing great improvement in healing with people with addictions, war veterans, people with disabilities, families experiencing difficulties, prisoners, people with special sickness…

Hope that this was helpful! Bookmark this page or share with a friend who might need this!

This post is written by Azam Sadeghi