Time for a little rest and relaxation. Art can be therapeutic for its relaxing and meditative benefits and as a creative outlet. Art therapy can also be a useful tool for reaching the nonverbal feelings and ideas that might be troubling or exciting you - but wordlessly.
There are two main types of art therapy.
- One is the simple "art as therapy" with relaxation benefits for the individual who is creating something of their own.
- The second type is "art psychotherapy" in which a therapist and patient are seeking deeper understanding of the patient's nonverbal issues. Emotional problems and memories from early childhood are formed without words. Art therapy can help a patient or individual reach those nonverbal thoughts or feelings with the aid of drawing or sculpture, song lyric and music or a poem and illustration. Free-form movement and dance or theater can also help channel nonverbal ideas into visual form.
- Summarized from information related to this footnote: (Edwards, David, Art Therapy, 2004, 2) from this report: (6.Chennai_Symposium)
The "art therapist" ideally has training in clinical therapy and in art techniques, when there is a goal to access nonverbal feelings and issues. Strong emotions can be generated by the process of creation and it can be helpful to have a counselor to share them with and help process them from the eyes of an adult rather than what might have been the eyes of a child in a fearful situation trying to make sense of what they had no words to explain at the time.