Top 4 Ways To Explore Arts Therapy For Healing Through Creativity

Taking charge of your well-being is a form of self-care that placates the soul. In a life restrained to juggling work and home, there is little space to breathe and soak in solitude. However, carving time and space to nurture your passion can make a world of difference to you and those around you. Expressing one’s mind through creativity can be one such outlet. Creative or arts therapy can help you speak your mind effectively. 

Therapeutic arts therapy:

Arts therapy is a form of creative therapy that allows you to use your creativity for bettering your mental health. In an arts therapy session, a trained professional will guide you to express and express feelings or experiences. These are otherwise difficult to express in a conventional therapy setup. They will provide you a safe therapeutic environment in the presence of an expert. It helps you better understand yourself. Most importantly, when adversaries strike, creative therapies like arts and dance therapy can help you heal better. A UK-based study conducted during the pandemic found that more than one-fifth of the sample size engaged with arts during the lockdown than they did before. Therefore hinting at the power of arts therapies in healing. Creative or arts therapies are equally potent in treating mental health issues when used under expert guidance. 

Are you wondering how it can be effective for you? If you have never really had a creative bent, here’s a big disclosure: arts therapies do not require you to be art lovers. It just needs you to be willing to explore the medium for self-expression and psychological well being. Here are a few types of arts therapies you can explore: 

Art

Arts therapy is a form of creative therapy that uses non-verbal methods to engage mind, body, and spirit. It focuses on utilizing creativity for the recovery of mental health. Moreover, it makes use of visual arts in a therapeutic context. There are innumerable mediums through which arts therapy takes place like art journaling, sketching, making collages, sculpting with clay, etc. Most importantly, you need not hold any experience in these mediums to participate in this type of therapy. A certified therapist will guide you on your medium of comfort for you to best express yourself and address existing mental issues. 

Dance/movement:

Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) is a type of arts therapy that uses movements or dance as a therapy to evoke emotional, cognitive, and physical integration. Hence, Dance Movement Therapy is based on the view that emotions and movements are interconnected. There are various aspects of dance therapy and its benefits can help those suffering from low esteem, self-image, depression, anxiety, and others. The therapy will see an experienced therapist observe, assess, and recommend movement exercises beneficial to the patient. Dance Movement therapy is beneficial to a wide age-group. Also, it can carry a variety of dances like aerobic exercise dance and a wide range of music to best suit the case. To know more click the link: https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/therapy/aspects-of-dance-therapy-and-their-benefits/

Music

This is a form of therapy that uses music to create emotional responses that can relax or stimulate and help them heal from stress or trauma. One need not be an expert in music to use this form of therapy. However, you need to just be open to the guidance provided by an expert in the field. Research suggests that music therapy can help improve medical outcomes and contribute to psychological well-being. 

Drama

Drama therapy is a type of arts therapy that leverages the medium of drama to explore emotional difficulties. So, there are multiple facets to this form of therapy. For example it can include a host of activities like writing and learning scripts, improvisation exercises, activities using puppets and masks and others to contribute towards psychological well-being. Mostly used in group setups, this form of therapy uses the power of fictional narratives to mentally empower patients to react and address them safely. Also, this form of arts therapy can be used to solve problems, understand yourself better, address unhealthy behaviour and improve social behaviour.

Arts therapy is diverse and fun to take part in when other conventional therapies have been found to be restrictive. It engages and eases you through your internal creativity. So get started on your arts therapy journey and revel in the personal discoveries you make.