Part Two: Healing Power of Art Therapy

"How is making art going to help me?"

"Is an art therapist even a real job?"

"How does this even work?"

These are a few of the questions I have received countless times regarding art therapy. So here I am to clarify with a few key points of what art therapy is (and is not) and how it can be beneficial for anyone who engages with it. Let's continue with our second point:

2) Art is an innately therapeutic process that when done in relation to an art therapist can have powerful lifelong impact on your wellbeing

I know first hand that making art can be life changing. At this point in my life, as a young professional just dipping their toes in the water of this incredible work, I have already met so many people who have told me about how art changed their life. The thing that may surprise you? MOST of these people would not call themselves artists.

I have spent a lot of my clinical hours working with high risk clients who either are stepping down from hospitalization into outpatient treatment, or are on the verge of needing to step into residential treatment of some kind. Almost every individual I have done art therapy with who has gone inpatient for mental health treatment will tell me about reconnecting with art for the first time in years. Sometimes this reconnection is drawing, doodling, or painting. Sometimes this reconnection is guided art making like diamond art or paint by numbers. Sometimes this reconnection looks like picking up new crafts or hobbies like crocheting or origami.

Regardless of how they journey there, each of these patients will tell me the same thing: "I hadn't made art in years until I was there with nothing else to do. Now, I do it all the time because it really helps me feel better."

This revelation isn't accidental or coincidental. This revelation that art making is therapeutic is one that has been studied, researched, and advocated for by artists, healthcare professionals, teachers, parents, and individuals throughout history. More recently, art therapy has become an established mental health profession. Utilizing art for therapeutic benefit is a specialized field, but it is one that desperately needs expansion.

Imagine if the medicine you took was not only healing, but the process by which you took the medicine was healing. Now imagine that medicine wasn't something that required mass amounts of money (though believe me and my bank account, it sure can), but was possible for any person to access with whatever they have available at any time. Can you see why I am so eager to make this work accessible?

I'll finish off with a more vulnerable story of sorts. I've had my own struggles with mental health. These struggles have fluctuated from mild to severe at times and I have been on countless medications and seen several therapists throughout the years to manage and understand my symptoms to the best of my ability. Even though I too am a therapist, the world can be a difficult place sometimes. Relationships are messy. Genetic components make my brain chemistry unlikely to respond well to stressors and changes. I am disposed towards unhealth which is why I am so passionate about becoming healthy for myself, and sharing this health and the road to it with others.

In the midst of a dark season of time, I was struggling. Really struggling. Showing up to work seemed almost impossible. I was sleeping a majority of the day that I could. I had fallen behind in my coursework in school. My relationships felt like too much work to nurture. I was depressed and I felt alone. I felt like if I didn't get this dark energy out, something in me would explode. So I started crocheting.

I didn't have a plan in mind. If you crochet or know anything about crochet you know that's not really how it works. Nonetheless, I didn't have a plan in mind. I created without judgment, without expectation, but out of a necessity to make something outside of myself to hold onto through the season. I kept crocheting until I felt like it was done. It took a couple days. The end product wasn't great. I stuffed it as a pillow (I guess?) of sorts. I ended up throwing it away when the season passed. But that process of looping each stitch after stitch got me through some really hard days. It got me out of my head. It reminded me that I have power over what I'm feeling. By the end of the project I was still depressed, but I was no longer feeling hopeful. I showed friends my monstrous fungi-esque creation. I marveled at its ugliness. I adored how horrible it was. Because it was only for me. I never posted it on the internet. I never even kept it. But making that ugly little mushroom thing was what saved my life and kept me from darkness for a few days. At the end of those few days, medicine had kicked in and begun working. I spiraled up. And I felt better.

I create because I need it. Because it fills me. Because it frees me. I create because it's medicine. It's health. It's wellbeing. It's what has kept me alive at times. It's what's given me joy, hope, and made breathing seem worth it. Sometimes, a simple curiosity for what this weird little creation is gonna look like is enough to keep you going. And that, my friends, is the power of art.

The Healing Power of Art

"How is making art going to help me?"

"Is an art therapist even a real job?"

"How does this even work?"

These are a few of the questions I have received countless times regarding art therapy. So here I am to clarify with a few key points of what art therapy is (and is not) and how it can be beneficial for anyone who engages with it. Let's begin with our first point:

1) Art therapy is a legitimate mental health profession with its own accrediting body (the art therapy credentialing board) and educational, ethical, and professional standards of practice.

Not anyone is allowed to call themself an art therapist. Not everyone is able to practice art therapy. Can an artist practice art therapy? No. They cannot. Can a counselor who has not taken the necessary coursework to become a REAT (Registered Expressive Art Therapist) or an ATR (Registered Art Therapist) conduct art therapy? No.

They cannot. It may sound like I am gatekeeping my profession, and maybe to an extent I am, but here me out.

I handle art materials differently than an artist or an art teacher. I call it my art therapy brain versus my artist brain. An artist or an art teacher is trying to get their students to create a good product and hopefully have fun in the process. However, in art therapy, I am working on regulating the nervous system through helping people get into the flow state with art materials. I utilize techniques, materials, and prompts very intentionally to not only keep myself regulated, but regulate the other person. When any of these factors is not well thought through, the session can go sour. I put intentionality into how much I talk in session, if I offer help or advice on techniques in session, what materials I allow access to, how much guidance or prompting I do, if I make art alongside the individual, etc. It's a science. One that I have spent literal years studying, practicing, and undergoing supervision for.

So why can a counselor not practice art therapy? Well, art therapy is more nuanced than a series of prompts and techniques. Just the same as no well respected therapist would casually toss around terms like "EMDR trained" "trauma informed" etc., art therapy required education. Art is disarming. Art rapidly can disarm someone without them realizing. Sometimes this means a simple early session can suddenly be catapulted right into the middle of a traumatic memory. Those trained in art therapy can tell you horror stories of well intentioned professionals casually "art therapizing" someone gone wrong. As therapists, we are ethically obligated to care for the wellbeing of our clients. Just as I am careful not to say I know how to conduct EMDR because I myself did a series of EMDR sessions and have read about it in a textbook, it is vital that counselors not pick up an art therapy textbook and decide they're ready to specialize their practice without the proper education.

If you would like to find out more about art therapy as a profession, you can do so by visiting the American Art Therapy Association's website: arttherapy.org

****I'll be back soon with part two!

My Journey to Art Therapy and Back

When I was in my senior year of high school, I attended a college fair. I got information from a few schools as I meandered my way around the gymnasium. Something pulled me apprehensively towards each and every arts-related school, even though I was sure I couldn't afford the attendance. Still, with a fragile dream in my heart, I picked up an arts school pamphlet and continued on my way. Sitting on the school bus to head back, I flipped through it. On the back of the pamphlet for the art school I wished I could attend was a section on Careers for Artists. Down on that list were the magic words that would change everything for me: "Art Therapy".

I always loved to create. I tell people all the time that the reason I love and am good at making art is that while most people stop drawing around late elementary to middle school, I never stopped. I kept drawing, painting, crafting, and making day after day until the practice was so ingrained it intensified into a full-on passion. I truly spend most of my chosen free time creating something - from art to music and poetry to journaling. I find that expression has not only been life-giving but life-saving for me. Art is a place of transparency and honesty that I cannot find anywhere else. I create when I have nobody to speak to. I create when I need to speak but don't have the words yet. I create when I don't know how I'm feeling. I create to get the feelings out and not feel trapped inside my body.

When I graduated with my Bachelor's degree in psychology with a minor in studio art, I started working as a Care Manager at a Community Mental Health Agency. If you asked me in my first few weeks how I liked the work I do, I would've told you about how it felt like exactly where I was meant to be at that time. And it was. But over time, working in a large agency with those unable to seek services elsewhere with immense needs and little resources that I could offer drained me. I craved being able to provide practical help and solutions. I craved creativity.

As COVID set in and lockdown began, I realized I needed art more than ever. I cared about my image as an artist and wanted to make it known. So, I started my "Quarantine Series" of images. I went to social media and asked anyone and everyone to send me a photo looking outside of a window. The idea was to create images to unite us in lockdown. I agreed to use however many I wished in whatever style I wished to make to create art and share it with those along for the journey. It was a huge success, one that I could not replicate though I tried. I quickly built social media for myself as an artist and once again began to ask the question, "How can I make creativity my life".

This question led me back to those two magic words that had hit me in the gut years earlier: Art Therapy. I set my sights towards completing my Master's in Art Therapy with an emphasis in Counseling with Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. Their hybrid program worked well with my schedule, and I committed to busting through the coursework as quickly as I could.

Now, over three years later, here I am! I've graduated. I'm provisionally registered as an art therapist. I'm currently procrastinating on studying for my NCE, which will allow me to work towards an LPC-MHSP. I've started my own private practice: Cleveland Art Therapy Services. So much of this dream still seems surreal, and we're far from having arrived, but I'm excited for where I'm at in this journey and to see what's left to come.