How can art help people heal in therapy?

By Becca Reynolds— Self Space Therapist

When I bring art materials in the therapy room with my clients, they often look hesitantly at the collection of materials. When offered to try to use them as a form of expression, they usually freeze first, like they don’t really know what they’re supposed to do. It happens more than you’d think, when clients are given the opportunity to choose from a wide array of colors and textures: “Is this the right way to do this?” they might ask, or “I’m not very creative. What if I mess it up?” I’ve thought a lot about this moment and why something as small as choosing between watercolor, pencils, or acrylic can feel so high-stakes.

Why is it so hard to follow our intuition in creative therapy?

I think it has to do with intuition. I notice people often have a hard time following their intuition, or simply doing what they want to do. They’re often looking for an answer or permission.

How does art therapy support emotional healing?

This is why I think art is such an effective form of therapeutic expression, because it has the power to tap you directly into your intuition. It is the original way we as humans communicated. It’s the starting place, it connects us with our core self. And if we can find meaningful ways to integrate it into modern therapy protocols, I think we could help heal a lot more people.

What is your personal connection to creativity and healing?

I don't know if it's a generational thing, but I certainly grew up in an environment where self-doubt was the water I swam in. I feel like I sometimes still carry that with me today. This journey into my art and learning to trust my own intuition is a path I’ve been on personally so it means a lot to me.

“Intuition is the moment when you know you don’t have a choice”

How do you define intuition in the therapy space?

I see intuition as that moment when you know you don’t have a choice. When we can trust our intuition, it’s a non-negotiable. It’s not a fleeting feeling, or something we can really ignore. When I present somebody with art supplies and a blank page, it’s like bringing this reality to the forefront.

What happens when we confront what we've been taught to silence?

This process allows us to confront those parts of us that we have been taught to silence, push away, and ignore. It’s shifting from saying “is it really okay for me to just pick a color and draw something?” to “I want to try painting today” after spending weeks or months with a pencil, eraser, and paper.

How can art and structure work together in therapy?

As a trained and licensed therapist, I also really value the structure that more top-down or left-brained approaches bring. They offer something essential. My passion is to explore how those worlds can meet. What becomes possible when we let our intuition speak first, and also have a framework to hold it and make sense of it, to give it language?

That’s the space I’m most curious about right now.

- Becca
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