Author: crayon45

Common Types of Therapeutic Art

art therapy types

The process of creating visual art is a very restorative one to our souls. Creating art has been proven to lower blood pressure, reduce anxiety, use the right and left brain actively together and relieve many mental disorder symptoms. There is no doubt that we were intended to use our creative faculty to keep ourselves in balance. There are certain visual art forms that are particularly well known for their therapeutic qualities.
Perhaps the most therapeutic medium for creating visual art is through painting, or using any other art tool that controls the use of the color spectrum. Paints, pastels, colored pencils and even crayons allow the artist to create whatever one-dimensional image they desire with whatever combination of colors they choose. This allows for a wide scope of expression. Materials for this type of project are easy to obtain and the creative possibilities are unending. Particularly having the ability to use a range of colors, which are strongly tied to emotion, is beneficial to mental health.
Drawing is very good for those who like to focus on the construction of the image itself rather than its tones. Drawing is a favorite of those who have exacting brains that seek to perfectly emulate an image. It is also good for artists who are imaginative and conceptual because it allows them to express their ideas visually.
Coloring may sound very elementary to a mature artist, but psychologists have found that coloring is practically a guaranteed way of connecting with your inner child. Coloring is a very basic therapeutic activity, which can transform the artist into a Zen state through its simplicity. Coloring is something that almost all children are given access to in our culture, and engaging in it has the ability to make you think with youthful parts of your mind and help you revisit phases of your life that have past.
And lastly, the simple act of creating a collage can be an incredibly useful tool of expression. Particularly for people who do not feel confident using art utensils to create lines and shading, collage is an excellent way of connecting your visual faculties with your psychologically reflective abilities.

Art to End Addiction and Disorders

addiction disorders art therapyWe have all heard the term ‘art therapy,’ but are you aware that the creative process of being artistic is actually very beneficial to the human psyche? Art has a number of benefits to mental health, hand eye coordination, helping the right and left brain work together and releasing endorphins. The creative part of the brain is a major faculty that was intended to be used regularly, and the visual arts are particularly good for personal expression. In fact, art therapy is so effective that it is a regular part of treatment in many rehabilitation centers to help treat addiction and mental disorder.

People are affected by a vast range of mental disorders, some fleeting and some long term, but one particularly effective way of helping people through mental disorders is through visual art creation. When a person has become entrenched in negative thought or behavioral patterns that are unwinding their well-being, the creative process of making visual art using paints, pencils, collage clippings and other art materials has been found to relieve and even minimize these destructive patterns. Art creation is an effective means of treating mental disorder because it allows for free, uninhibited expression, it gives the artist something to be harmlessly in control of, it uses parts of the brain that are often under resourced which activate a number of creative problem solving abilities.
Time to look at alternatives when necessary, and seek out mental health treatment facilities for professional advice.
The condition of addiction can be dealt with similarly. Both addiction and mental disorder can be overpowering to people, and can feel like an entity of their own. Using art to address addiction or mental disorder and expel feelings about it can be an incredible tool for self expression and for venting about the burden of being affected. Creating visual art also channels past thought patterns because it connects the artist to their youth. This is useful in reconstructing the addict’s brain and helping them recall alternative ways of thinking.

Art Therapy for the Soul

soulful art therapyArt creation has been found to have healing qualities and can be very useful in treating addictions and mental disorders. This is because art creation is a healthy, intrinsic activity for people to engage in. People are intelligent, thoughtful beings that have seemingly been creating art since  their beginning. Language is limited in its ability to express the depths of the soul, and creative endeavors such as art and music fill in where language falls short. Art creation is very useful for having personal revelations, being cathartic, reflecting on the self and for expression.

When a person is struggling with addiction or mental illness, one of their biggest challenges is to sort through their behavior cognitively. Being objective about one’s self is very difficult, and understanding one’s own behavior can be very psychologically complex. That is why many people struggling with addiction and mental illness seek the professional help of an addiction counselor, a psychologist or another mental health professional. Coming to understand your own behavior and then correct it is done partly through the advice of a mental health expert and partly through your own self reflection. One of the best ways of freely exploring your own psyche is through art creation as it opens the mind and allows for the free flow of ideas.

Common types of therapeutic art creation include collage, drawing, painting and photography. Collage can be very useful for those who are visually driven. What they cannot express in words, they can express by finding images that other people created and laying them out in a way that makes sense to them and captures their own original idea. Drawing and painting are two very old artistic mediums that people have been utilizing for centuries. Whether someone is replicating something they see in life or creating from their imagination, drawing and painting will prove to be very therapeutic. Photography is a great artistic medium for those who enjoy interacting with the world, be it the natural world or the man-made world.

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Why Art Creation Helps People

art therapy helps peopleThere is a reason people continue to create art even when they discover that there is usually no money in it. The creative capacity that exists within human beings is essential to our existence. It is arguable that our creative abilities are even divine. It is widely believed that humans are a result of a divine being’s creative process, which was instilled into us. Creative projects are more than just fun, they are a high-calling.

When it comes to creative projects in the visual arts spectrum, the therapeutic possibilities are endless. What we typically think of as art is an aesthetic arrangement of materials that impact the viewing audience by carrying meaning. Arriving at the destination of meaningful art is consistently a meaningful process. This meaningful process of journeying to fulfill an artistic vision is the part that is most important to people. The creative journey requires introspection, examination, integrity, self-awareness and connection to one’s emotions. Going through this process does a great deal of good for a person’s mental health. Because most of us are exposed to visual arts projects at a very young age, many of these abilities are inherent.

The way that visual arts projects can help people through difficult life circumstances is very unique and beneficial. Creative projects are to difficult emotions what lubrication is to an old bike. They get the gears moving and working. When someone experiences the loss of a loved one, a divorce, being laid off or any other circumstance that causes grief and stress, getting out the art supplies can be the best way of healing. Any creative process will ignite the same faculty that processes major life changes, but the visual arts in particular are very good for high emotions. Sometimes our personal emotions are too big to express logically, and incorporating the use of color or sound is a more effective way of expressing meaning.

Working on a visual art project can also help alleviate disorders, addictions and substance abuse. Other than the mental health benefits described above, the visual arts can also be very useful for connecting with areas of the brain that have not been tapped into for a time. Coloring or doing arts and crafts is known to be one of the best ways of channeling your inner child, when can help you make huge strides in defeating a mental hardship.