The Art of Therapy

Art is a part of everyone’s life, whether that’s in music, communication styles, organization tactics, or even traditional fine arts or performing arts. What many people don’t always realize is that art changes us. In fact, for some, art can actually act as a form of therapy. Traditionally, therapy involves having to communicate to a therapist or counselor about both external and internal issues and conflicts, but sometimes there simply are no words to describe or convey the depths of human existence and experience. This might be due to age (children generally do not have the vocabulary required to express themselves and all they feel easily in therapy), ability (physical disabilities that inhibit speech), or simply the gravity and magnitude of the emotions or situation that goes beyond language. 

With language and speech, there are a few tools that can be finessed in order to nuance unique expression such as sentence composition, syntax and grammar, vocabulary, rhythm, tonality, and volume. Art comparatively has many more elements with which to distinguish and clarify expression, such as form, shape, line, color, texture, value, balance, emphasis, movement, rhythm, unity, and variety. It is obvious instantly that art offers more elements with which to layer and integrate and express experiences. It additionally engages the creator innate within every human being, allowing them to create something new and beautiful every time. 

Telling someone, even a therapist, about a difficult experience can be scary. There is often a fear of judgment or a fear of misinterpretation and misunderstanding. It is one thing to experience pain, and an entirely different thing to entrust that pain to someone else, to give it the light of day and a stranger’s eyes. Art is unique in that the artist can decide whether or not they want to share their interpretation or intended meaning behind their pieces or if they would rather keep it to themselves and allow the viewer (if there is one) to make their own assumptions and conclusions. This provides individuals with an outlet to process through their own emotions and conflicts while still maintaining a sense of protection and privacy if they wish. 

Joni Eareckson Tada, one of our guests here on Good Life TV has spoken often of the role of art as a therapeutic process in her life. After a diving accident at the age of seventeen, Joni’s life was changed forever as she became a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Joni had always been a very active teenager, so to suddenly lose the ability to use her limbs was devastating and depressing. To Joni’s surprise, at one of her earliest physical therapy sessions, her therapist asked her to take a pen in her mouth, and to draw something. Joni was a very creative and artistic individual, but she assumed she would no longer be able to create art now that she couldn’t use her arms or hands, but she was willing to give it a try. From that day on, Joni only continued to improve her skills as an artist, even to the point where she was able to sell her work for the world to see and enjoy! When we interviewed Joni, she told us about her experience using art as a form of therapy, of self-expression. 

To learn more about Joni and her story, watch her interview here and visit her website here. To learn more about art as therapy, how it is done, and some of the research behind it, keep your eyes open for our next post!