What is Art Therapy?
Art therapy is a process which associates healing and creative thinking by expressing one’s emotion through art. It can help improve mental, physical and emotional health. Art therapy is suitable for those who wish to boost their self-esteem and self-awareness. It can be practiced in different forms such as painting, sculpting, colouring, and even constructing collages! Today, we have Amanda, who has experienced the benefits of art therapy.
About Amanda
Amanda is a 19-year-old girl who suffered from an accident, and sadly lost her mother in that unfortunate event. This accident left a scar on half of her face which caused her to be mocked and hurt by others. Since then, Amanda lost faith in her friends and family while suffering from the trauma. She went through a tough time as she experienced depression and severe loneliness. Upon seeing this, her father brought her to multiple psychologists and counselors. However, she could not overcome the trauma. Until one day, she was introduced to something that saved her life; art therapy.
Benefits of Art Therapy
One of the benefits of art therapy is that it helps with self-discovery. Art therapy managed to help Amanda find herself by using a creative thinking process. Through art expression, this form of therapy guided her to understand more about herself. Thus, it assisted her to achieve self-discovery which is a way to express a person’s emotional feelings by using various forms of art.
“It really helped me see who I truly was,” Amanda said with a smile.
Productivity can also be enhanced by art therapy. Sometimes, Amanda puts a figurative glass ceiling over herself that limits her from doing amazing things. With art therapy, she was able to break the “glass ceiling” and be as creative as she wanted. It helps fill her time with useful activities and makes her brain function in different ways during the process; allowing her to be creative without any limitations.
“I seem to be more active after I tried using different colours for my artwork,” Amanda claimed.
Not long after, Amanda started to throw out all of the negativity present in her life. She started to have a more positive mindset, rather than the mindset she had months before art therapy came into her life. This comes from all the other benefits of art therapy combined. Amanda is no longer defined as the girl who suffered the loss of her mother. Instead, she is much brighter and stronger. Art therapy helped her to have a positive way of thinking, as it is a process that makes people who experience it feel happier and more open with themselves.
“I realized that I have to be positive, after thinking about my future,” she mentioned.
One of Amanda’s paintings
Amanda’s Future
Art therapy has made Amanda stronger and more confident. It is even improving her relationship with her friends and family! Today, Amanda dreams to be a psychologist because she wants to help people like her in the future. Art became one of her interests and she now spends time creating art for strangers, in hopes that they could also have a positive mindset. She also mentioned that she wants to do charity during her free time by helping children and the elderly. To her, companionship is more valuable than anything. Amanda strongly encourages people who are unable to come out of trauma in any form, to try art therapy. Art therapy is what saved Amanda’s life.
Amanda painting a bright sunflower
By: Ee Wen