Art Therapy For Anxiety: Healing Through Creativity

Many people who are struggling with anxiety do not usually share what they think and how they feel because of fear of being judged or invalidated. However, the more they suppressed these negative thoughts and emotions, the more significant distress they endured. 

Therefore, finding a treatment where they can freely express themselves can be a great way to help them manage their anxiety. An intervention that can provide precisely like that is Art Therapy. 

In this article, Resilient Recovery discusses how this intervention combines psychotherapy with art-making to help people reclaim their wellness. 

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is a normal human reaction to threat or danger, pressure, or facing challenging situations such as speaking in public, being in a social situation, or taking an examination. In these circumstances, our body’s flight-or-fight response is activated, and we experience physiological and psychological changes that may sometimes feel uncomfortable. 

While anxiety is often perceived as a negative emotion, it is not necessarily a bad thing. Anxiety serves multiple helpful functions, like preparing us to deal with threats, staying alert and focused, performing our best, and motivating us to keep moving towards our goals. 

However, anxiety becomes problematic when it is excessive, persistent, causes distress, and affects day-to-day function. If you happen to experience them, you might probably be suffering from an anxiety disorder. 

Understanding Art Therapy

When we hear ‘art therapy,’ we often associate it with drawing, colouring, painting, or anything that has something to do with creative arts. However, art therapy as a therapeutic approach is more than simply sitting with a colouring book for an hour. It is a well-researched, proven, and professionally implemented treatment that uses active art-making, creative process, and psychological theories. It is a versatile approach that can be applied to almost all individuals, whether students in school, hospital patients, uniformed military personnel, or clients in counseling and psychotherapy sessions.  

Theoretically, art therapy is a form of talk therapy based on the assumption that early trauma is stored in our unconscious mind in preverbal forms of sensory, kinesthetic, or imaginal cognitions and related emotional experiences represented in various symbolic languages rather than being accessible through typical or traditional verbal languages. 

When a significant event happens, sometimes it isn’t easy to express or even name our feelings. An art therapist helps us convey them without verbal communication by combining psychological therapy with creative arts such as painting, drawing, sculpting, and clay modelling.

Participating in artistic and creative activities while being guided by professional therapists can help people better process their emotions and learn more about themselves.

Generally, art therapy aims to improve our self-esteem and self-awareness, nurture our emotional resilience, enhance insight, and resolve internal conflicts and discomfort. 

Art Therapy Can Help with Anxiety

Several research studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of art therapy as an intervention for people with anxiety who are often overwhelmed with worries or apprehension. Most of the time, when we experience anxiety, we tend to focus on these negative thoughts and the more we concentrate on them, the more they persist and cause distress. 

One of the main therapeutic mechanisms of art therapy is to interrupt and distract us from ruminating on negative thoughts or overwhelming emotions. Once our attention has shifted, our nervous system begins to regulate, allowing us to access the rest of our less distressing thoughts and emotions. 

In addition, art therapy allows us to engage in various creative activities which may calm us down. Like deep breathing exercises or other strategies, art-making can be an easy way to feel more relaxed. Specifically, our brain’s chemical levels decrease, which helps the nervous system slow down. When we are in this calm and relaxed state, we experience a more direct and easier access to our thoughts and emotions, which allows us to process them safely. 

Benefits of Using Art Therapy Exercises for Anxiety

Similar to other psychotherapeutic approaches, art therapy provides a wide range of benefits to different mental conditions, including anxiety. Some of them include:

Break the Cycle of Rumination

People with anxiety keep on ruminating about their negative past experiences. These involve worrying about the possibility of experiencing those adverse events again. These uncertainties exacerbate anxiety symptoms because they trigger more anxious thoughts. 

Art therapy can be an excellent treatment option for rumination because engaging our mind in visualizing and creating artwork using our hands help us feel less attached to our thoughts because of distraction. 

Improve Emotion Regulation

Often, those who are chronically anxious tend to have challenges in regulating their emotions. They are experiencing difficulties in controlling and expressing their feelings. Hence, processing their emotion through art therapy can be beneficial. 

In professionally guided art therapy, the therapist helps the client understand, accept, and express their suppressed emotions by engaging in various visual artmaking techniques, such as drawing, painting, sculpting, collage, etc., which can essentially downregulate emotional distress and promote self-insight. 

Boost Physical Health

While art therapy does not directly cause improvement in physical health, engaging in art-making can reduce stress, which may prevent us from acquiring stress-related conditions such as hypertension and heart disease. 

It also improves immune system functions, possibly reducing the risk of developing illness. In addition, art therapy can enhance coordination and agility for those engaging in activities involving fine motor skills like drawing or painting.

Expressive Art Therapy Activities for Anxiety

An art therapist utilizes various expressive art activities such as visual arts, drama, dance and movement, music, and writing to help people manage their anxiety symptoms. Although it is recommended to do these activities while being guided by a professional, you can also do some of these activities at home in case you experience an anxiety attack:

Drawing or Painting 

Some people with anxiety may have difficulties describing or verbalizing what they think and how they feel. Encouraging them to draw or paint their anxious thoughts and feelings can be an effective tool to allow them to externalize and process them comfortably. 

Mandala Making

A mandala is an artwork made of intricate circular objects and designs. When they engage in mandala making, people with anxiety feel calm and relaxed because this task’s repetitive and symmetrical nature can help them refocus their thoughts instead of ruminating. 

Our Art Therapist at Resilient Recovery Can Help Reduce Anxiety

Anxiety can be a debilitating experience if it is excessive and left untreated. Hence, searching for an appropriate treatment is a pivotal step in making your anxiety journey a successful one.

If you are looking for a unique approach to managing your anxiety, art therapy might be right for you. Here at Resilient Recovery, our highly skilled therapists are ready to create art with you and assist you in reclaiming your wellness.