In Art Therapy the therapist makes use of creative materials and techniques to facilitate healing and recovery. It promotes calm, release of emotion and there-establishment of a sense of self that may have been shattered by trauma.
Art Therapy
“You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.”
– George Bernard Shaw
Visual creativity is not verbally based and so allows the therapeutic process to unfold gently and for the child or young person to express things that might be too painful to put into words.
The act of creativity is essential to our experience of being human and the use of art as a therapeutic tool promotes the speaking of the self through using the hands to make objects and marks.
To literally make a mark upon the world, however small, may reorder the experience of one who has suffered, enabling them to make contact with their own voice and agency.
Alongside the expertise and empathetic guidance of the therapist, the young person may move towards the healing of being heard, seen and acknowledged and so gain strength and confidence to face the circumstances of their life
