Art Therapy was founded by Adrian Hill in 1942 whilst he was recovering from tuberculosis. He discovered the benefits of drawing and painting, which helped in his recovery. He introduced Art Therapy into hospitals and sanatoria’s, which allowed patients to relieve their mental distress due to concentrating on and expressing their feelings and pain through art.
Why Art Therapy? It can create healing and mental well-being. Art can be used to explore and understand emotions. It can help aid in overcoming difficult feelings and expressing oneself when it is too challenging to put it into words. Art Therapy can allow the individual to gain personal insight and therefore develop new coping methods for themselves.
Any medium can be used in Art Therapy including drawing, painting, collaging, sculpting, etc. It can be whatever the individual desires to use to convey their emotions and thoughts.
I decided to use two methods I had researched to express myself.
1. Anxiety Expressing Itself
Here you close your eyes and tap into your feelings of anxiety in order to understand how it feels. Next you choose a pen, pencil, paint brush, etc. and begin drawing continuously with your eyes closed until you feel the expression is complete. Then you use other mediums to expand the image and create a picture from it, with your eyes open. After this you take five minutes to reflect on the activity.
My five minute reflection:
“The drawing became a monster’s face, the pain/anger/aggression of anxiety, which feels like it is staring at me. The red defusing into the yellow shows the level of anxiety reducing. The red is small in the corner as my anxiety does not feel strong right now. The yellow shows the calm I feel once the anxiety has settled.”
2. A Collage of Calm and Safety
This was the act of creating your visual ‘safe space’ using collage.
My Safe Space:
The collage shows my safe space which is at the top of a high hill that overlooks a calm world. The blue sky creates a sense of warmth and the flowers and plants bring me a sense of joy. I placed a butterfly in the top right hand corner to represent new life and a sense of freedom from the busy, anxious mind.
By Gabrielle Spooner // 13 November 2020
References:
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-art-therapy-2795755
https://www.healthline.com/health/effective-ways-to-fight-anxiety-without-drugs
https://www.strichards.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Art-Therapy-Adrian-Hill.pdf
Hey, Let’s Talk About It 