What is Art therapy?
Art therapy is a form of therapy that uses aspects of psychotherapy and art and focuses its attention on the creative process as well as what happens during the art making process.
Art therapy is a door.
Door - bridge to our unconscious.
Door - possibility to explore at our own pace: emotions, desires,
painful events, identities and what sustains us.
Door to look inside and understand ourselves a little more each time.
Door to access our creative self,
to celebrate us and invite play into our lives again.
Art therapy is accompanying each other through metaphor.
Opportunity to connect with our body in a different way.
Door to a world that allows us to imagine other possibilities, potentialities, other worlds.
Opportunity to accommodate the devastating parts of life in different ways.
Door to different means for explaining what we cannot in words.
I am here to accompany you to paint and open that door.
In a session...
In a session there are three elements in dialogue: the participant, the art and the art therapist.
I accompany you suggesting paths to explore, means, and materials (if we are working online we use the materials that you have on hand) with intentionality. We start the session checking-in on how you are doing and if necessary we do a grounding exercise. Following this there is a time to make art, and then we explore what happened in your process and what has emerged in the piece of art. In closing, we talk about how you are in the moment, what will happen with the piece, and if there is anything that needs to be done between now and the next session.
*All images are part of my own art therapy process or art in response to accompaniments I have done.*.
Is art therapy for me?
Anyone with an interest in exploring themselves through a creative and therapeutic process can do so, it doesn't matter if you have had art experience or how old you are. At Amapola Arteterapia we accompany children from 5 to 11 years old and adults.
