One of the goals for people working with a therapist is to get a better understanding of themselves. Often through experience in life, including traumas, abuse, addiction, stress, and even issues with body image, self-worth, and self-esteem, messages that are negative and unhealthy become the prevailing message in our inner dialogue.
In most cases, people are not aware of the negative self-messages and thoughts they have, at least until working with psychotherapists in London. These professionals, through their training, are able to use a range of different treatment options and modes to help individuals to understand these issues and to make changes to correct the harm these messages are causing in healing and recovery.
While many psychotherapists in London use treatment options such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Brief Solution Focused Therapy (BSFT), psychoanalysis, or even Group Therapy, sometimes expressing very deeply held thought and emotions cannot be effectively expressed through traditional types of talk therapy.
A Unique Approach
To help individuals express ideas, thoughts, and emotions that are more complicated, more complex or perhaps even still vague or unclear, the use of art therapy is a highly effective treatment technique.
Art therapy offered through trained and recognized art therapists takes away the need or the concern to find just the right word and allows the clients to focus in on the thoughts and emotions without the constraints of language.
Just as a piece of art can bring a highly emotional response for someone viewing the art, the same is true when creating the art. Art therapy taps into the creativity and that freedom to allow people to paint, sculpt, draw, or even work with already developed images to explore their inner feelings.
A Typical Session
There are different options to art therapy, and the best psychotherapists in London using this technique will modify the process and the medium used to work with the client.
It may be easier to actually talk about what art therapy isn’t for a minute, just to clear up any possible misconceptions. Art therapy is not an art class, and there is no right or wrong way for a client to express themselves through art. In some sessions, the therapist may have a specific task for the client, typically around creating a representation of how they are thinking about a topic, challenge, obstacle, or memory.
The art therapist may simply observe the client as he or she works on producing their project. Alternatively the therapist may interact with the client while the session is ongoing, asking deeper questions and helping the client to clarify their thoughts or ideas around a particular issue.
Yet a third option is to use the art to simulate a conversation about the issue. Instead of asking the client to talk about something that is difficult to discuss, the therapist can ask about the work created, gaining insight into the underlying issues that can be used in later sessions or to stimulate conversation with the client that is comfortable and not intimidating.
Art therapy is used in a wide range of different treatments. It can be used with non-verbal individuals as well as with those in recovery or dealing with any type of mental health diagnosis. Not used as stand-alone therapy, art therapy combines well with other types of therapeutic models.
Many psychotherapists in London use art therapy as a way to provide relaxation, stress reduction, and to help to relieve depression and anxiety. This is highly effective for clients as they can easy incorporate art into their daily lives to use this as a strategy for stress reduction as they move through healing and into recovery.
