The connection between body and mind.

About Art Therapy

Art therapy is based on the idea that creativity enhances wellbeing. It's a psychotherapeutic approach that uses different mediums to promote the emotional, social, cognitive, physical, and cultural (including spiritual) functioning of a person.

How Art Therapy Works

Creative processes are used to help a person explore and express unconscious material that may be difficult to articulate in words. It is based on the connection between body and mind and recognises that change and growth in one area supports change and growth in the other.

Art therapists combine their specialist knowledge with skills of psychotherapy, counselling and rehabilitation to help individuals with a wide variety of treatment needs.

Art Modalities Include:

  • Visual Art (drawing, painting, sculpture)

  • Drama Therapy

  • Sand play

  • Music

  • Narrative and storytelling

  • Creative writing and poetry

A young girl smiling at camera in a classroom, with other children and an adult working on arts and crafts in the background.
Child coloring with pastels on a white sheet of paper, surrounded by boxes of colorful pastels on a wooden table.

How Does Art Therapy Help?

Art therapy is effective at helping people living with:

  • Trauma and its symptoms i.e. anxiety, depression, body image, relationship difficulties, PTSD, and trauma 

  • Developmental delays, learning difficulties, autism and related disorders

  • Adoption issues, attachment issues, couple/relationship issues

  • Physical disorders e.g. movement restrictions, chronic pain

  • Mental health conditions including addictions, eating disorders, anger management

  • Neurological disorders e.g. Parkinson’s disease, dementia, and bereavement

A person's needs may be supported through group or individual art therapy sessions and in many types of settings e.g. private clinics, hospitals, schools, aged-care facilities. 

FAQs