Art therapy uses creative mediums like drawing, painting, coloring, and sculpture. Take a moment to go back to your childhood days when you spent hours engaging creatively either dancing spontaneously, drawing, painting, singing etc. Those were the moments that added life to otherwise mundane days. Creative expression is the way to give outlet to the music that remains unsung inside us.

The creative process promotes a sense of well-being, personal fulfillment, and self-expression because it is an “opportunity to express oneself imaginatively, authentically, and spontaneously”.

Malchiodi, C. (2014). The Handbook of Art Therapy. The Guilford Press: New York

When someone experiences trauma in their life, it leaves an indelible imprint in their mind. It gets difficult for them to express themselves in words. Sometimes language fails to do justice to emotions. But each one’s creative expression is unique, it is their own personal style of adding beauty to life. This heals their stifled core by giving them the freedom to use a medium that’s beautiful and enlivening.

 “Art safely gives voice to and makes a survivor’s experience of emotions, thoughts, and memories visible when words are insufficient.”

Board-certified art therapist Gretchen Miller for the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children.

Art is therapeutic and healing. It need not be something complex or time consuming. it can be something that can be easily incorporated in our everyday life like cooking and uniquely presenting our signature dish, decluttering and decorating our house with a fresh flower arrangement, coloring Mandala art (Mandala coloring books are readily available in stores), editing and beautifying the pictures on our phone, singing our favorite songs in our own unique personal style etc.