June 2025 Blog Embrace The Power Of The Arts.

June 2025 Blog   Embrace The Power of the Arts

Have you ever heard someone say, I can’t draw to save my soul.  So, if someone is not what we think of as “artistic”, then how can art help them?  Don’t I have to be somewhat of an Artist in order to gain something from Art or to even understand it? What is the power of the Arts as a therapy?  What does the word therapy really mean and how can the therapy of using arts make a difference in your life.

According to Health.com, “Art therapy is psychotherapy that uses the processes of making art to express emotions and improve mental and emotional health”. According to Wikipedia, “art therapy” is defined as “cognitive, behavioral, and humanistic types of therapies, along with creativity, reconciliation, self awareness and personal growth through the use of art.

In my nutshell and summarized by me according to the world-wide web; Touro University: “Cognitive” therapy is all about our thoughts and the changing of the thoughts can change the behaviors.  “Behavioral” therapy is about the brain /behavior connection and conditioning one to change a behavior. “Humanistic” therapy is about understanding and supporting, providing choices to help one in making choice for their best life.

So for those who think because they “aren’t an artist or they can’t” do art, that it can’t help them; it is not really about the art as a whole dynamic itself that is produced.  What it is about is that art is providing an internal vision into who they are as an individual, what makes them tick, through the “unspoken” and “internal communication” and insight and or perceptions” that the art provides to them. It can cause one to have an “ahha” into what they think and even why they think what they think. It provides a way to communicate not verbally, but subconsciously, through the art. All facets of arts are important, for example; colors have meanings, numbers have meanings, and even shapes have meanings.

For example, in my art therapy and then subsequent training, I had to sketch an inanimate object that described how I felt about myself at my lowest point. I sketched a vase but it had a crack drawn into it. That imperfection was because my perception was that I was broken. Know that your perceptions are really your reality, but that perceptions can be changed through therapy using art. Let go of your fears of not being an artist and embrace the healing potentials that therapy using ART can bring to you and communicate for you. But also, don’t forget about using all of the arts as a tool to heal.

Blessings, Light and Love!