Brooke Hammond, MSW, LCSW, ATR

Art Therapy

The brain and body have many ways of experiencing, understanding, and processing. Putting feelings into words and communicating them verbally is only one way of expressing ourselves.

Many people are not able to access their feelings, motivations, or memories solely by talking. They find that engaging in something physical, visual, and tangible can unlock energy and facilitate healing. I use art therapy as a starting point, a place to begin to ask questions and explore deeper feelings. We may use art as a way to investigate and discover hard to talk about issues, or simply as a means to reduce anxiety while talking in session. Art therapy can be a powerful tool for excavating internal, subconscious feelings and making them external and more visible. It gives us a way to look at ourselves from a completely different angle. Not every feeling is a word.

You do not have to be an artist to engage in art therapy. The product is not as important as the process. Many times in art therapy we will create images and then manipulate or destroy them, depending on what feels right and useful in your process.

More information on art therapy