What is Non-Clinical Therapeutic Art?
In practicing therapeutic art, the goal is process and not product.
While the term 'therapeutic art' can be confusing, it's actually pretty simple. Therapeutic art is a non-clinical practice that teaches you to use art (or anything creative) as an activity that helps you reflect on your current state and emotions. It is done in a more self-guided and self-reflective manner, or alongside a coach/facilitator and often in small groups or community settings.
It's a wellness practice that you can learn just as you would learn yoga or meditation to promote mindfulness. It's a hobby that you can practice regularly so that you work towards a more balanced mental state and well-being, having incorporated a small therapeutic activity. These activities can contribute to one's overall mental well-being by helping regulate stresses, slowing down, and promoting self-expression and reflection. They can help you clarify your goals and look at your strengths to boost your self-confidence.
Disclaimer
There are a few important things to note when learning about therapeutic art. A therapeutic art coach is not a licensed mental health professional or clinical therapist, so they do not provide traditional art therapy. Therefore, Grace Creative unfortunately cannot accept insurance coverage. However, because it is non-clinical, it is available at a more affordable price.
It's also important to note that sometimes doing a therapeutic activity can cause uncomfortable feelings to surface and if you feel like you'd want to explore those further I will help you find a mental health professional that you can connect with.
Example of a therapeutic art activity
Sessions are often done without having any prior creative experience, or access to a lot of art materials. Many times a session is done using non-traditional materials found in your home, or out in nature.
One of my personal favourite therapeutic sessions done during a class was creating a picture of how I was showing up that day, as a wave (we had to choose what kind of wave in the water). We were told to find different items to use as brushes, so using just a bit of blue acrylic paint and a blade from a spider plant taken from my house, and a q-tip as the brushes, it was then done in my non-dominant hand. Once it was dry, a few white circles with pastel were added on to it as well.
It was very process focused knowing that it was not being done with traditional materials, and not in my strong hand, so there was no expectation there to create a great looking product. It was about using non-traditional materials, paying attention to how they felt in my hand, paying attention to how I naturally wanted to control the outcome, or how the piece from the plant actually smeared the paint around better than I expected. It was about getting to enjoy the moment of feeling almost like I was finger painting, as it was very fluid and uncontrolled. It was about listening quietly to the soft pat pat from the q-tip dabbing the paint onto the paper. It was about connecting something from nature to how I felt I was showing up. I was towering above things that day, but I was gentle too - I was quiet and yet strong. I was unique. And I loved it.
