By Loic Mulatris
What are some things that come to mind when you think of practicing art therapy?
Do you imagine a therapist peering into one your drawings, making interpretations about what that drawing might mean, or about your emotional state?
Do you imagine you have to be a trained, highly capable artist to get anything valuable out of the process?
I mention these potential assumptions because they are commonly held misconceptions about what art therapy is and who it might be for.
Art therapy can be practiced by individuals at all levels of technical artistic ability to great emotional and psychological benefit. And though art 
• What emotions came up for you as you were creating?
• What memories and associations come up now as you reflect on your art creation?
• In what ways do you feel connected to your art piece?
In contemporary art therapy, the meanings of an artwork are explored in a collaborative manner—a process of discovery facilitated by the therapist and led by the client (Feldwisch, 2022). What’s fascinating about this process is that clients can often end up encoding and expressing many deep feelings and thoughts in art that they would have difficulty accessing by way of simply using words.
In my undergraduate years while studying psychology, I got to be intensely curious about the reading and writing of poetry; so much so that, immediately after undergrad, I went on to do a Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Oregon with a concentration on creative writing. Later, after finishing up in Oregon and while studying to be psychotherapist here in Ontario—inevitably and unsurprisingly—I found myself drawn to investigate the overlap between art making and psychotherapy. As a result of my exploration, I found there was rich history and deep connection between both practices.
The famed and influential psychoanalyst Carl Jung was among the first to advocate for using art as means of self-exploration and insight into one’s inner thoughts and feelings (Feldwisch, 2022). He encouraged his clients to use the technique of ‘active imagination,’ both in and outside of sessions, which he himself engaged in as well (Feldwisch, 2022). This particular technique involves drawing, painting, or sculpting etc. from a place of inner calm, without self-judgement, interruption, and editing on the part of the conscious mind. This allows one to actively engage and participate in the process that reveals unconscious material, stimulates self-discovery, and promotes mental well-being.
Feldwisch (2022) suggests a number of experiential artistic exercises that involve active imagination, one of which I’ll list here. Feel free to try it and take stock of what arises in you!
Create your own scribble drawing by holding a drawing material in your hand (or perhaps nondominant hand) and moving your arm freely on the page for around 15 s. Take several minutes to examine your scribble, step back, maybe squint your eyes and wait for an image to reveal itself. Once you’ve identified an image, use your materials to bring forth and embellish your image (p. 231).
References
Feldwisch, R. P. (2022). History, profession, and ethics of art therapy. In Foundations of art therapy : theory and applications (pp. 3–30). chapter, Elsevier.
