Art therapy is a unique form of therapy that uses art and creative expression to both diagnose and treat mental illnesses. Are you interested in learning how art therapy can help your teen get better? Then you have come to the right place. Key Healthcare helps teens with emotional troubles manage their conditions and get better through teen art therapy.
This discussion highlights how art therapy works in helping teens manage their emotional and mental troubles.
Identifying Teen Troubles
Adolescence is often a troubling time for most teenagers. As research by the National Institute of Mental Health shows, at least 20.1% of teenagers in America experience a major depressive episode before reaching adulthood. The mental health challenges experienced by teens include other conditions such as anxiety, substance abuse, PTSD, etc.
Early identification of warning signs regarding mental health challenges or feelings of being troubled in teenagers can be beneficial for the teen. These warning signs can help you recommend the best treatment methods for the teen and address the problem before it worsens. Some warning signs you should watch for include sudden changes in your teen’s behavior, mood swings, withdrawal from social activities, and lashing out. While these signs are inconclusive, they are a great place to start.
With the growing statistics on teen mental health challenges, you need to help the teen under your care get better through effective intervention mechanisms. That is where art therapy comes into play.
Art Therapy As A Therapeutic Approach
Art therapy has been around for quite a while since the earliest reports of art therapy can be traced to the 1940s. However, art therapy was officially recognized by psychologists around the world in the 1970s. Various reports from scholarly literature indicate that art therapy is effective in treating various forms of mental illnesses such as anxiety, PTSD, emotional difficulties, stress, and substance abuse.
The beauty of this treatment method is that your teen doesn’t have to be artistic to participate in it. In fact, just the mere presence of art could have beneficial effects on your teen. Let us look at what your teen may be experiencing that they need support through art therapy.
As mentioned above, research has associated art therapy with a wide range of benefits for the treatment of teen mental health challenges. As a treatment mechanism, art therapy is direct. All the teens need to do is express themselves in different art forms. The possible mediums used include painting, sketching, sculpting with Play-Doh or clay, doodling, or using graphical software on computers and smartphones. The options are limitless.
While art therapy is an effective intervention mechanism on its own, it can also work well in conjunction with other interventions, such as talk therapy.
How Art Therapy Works For Troubled Teens
Let’s now discuss how art therapy works for troubled teens.
Expressing Emotions Through Art
Troubled teens often grapple with numerous emotions. Art therapy helps these teens find a healthy way to decompress and express these troubling emotions. The treatment method helps the teens find a way to share their emotions without necessarily expressing them verbally. As such, art therapy is an effective tool for teens who are not quite good at talking about their emotions.
At times, your teen might be going through various emotional challenges but is not sure what these troubled feelings are. Art therapy can help teens process their complex feelings and pinpoint them effectively. That way, the teen can release their emotions without worrying about them as much and build emotional intelligence to help them identify complex emotions in the future.
Fostering Communication
Artists throughout history have been using their art as a way of communicating. The same goes for teens who use art as a form of therapy. Your teen can use art to express ideas and feelings they would not ordinarily discuss. Just by observing the art your teenager creates, a therapist can have an idea of what they are going through and recommend intervention mechanisms. Therefore, art therapy can help bridge the communication gap between you and the teen or the teenager and the therapist.
Building Coping Mechanisms
Teens going through troubled times need healthy ways of coping with their emotional and mental challenges. Without proper guidance, teens can explore unhealthy coping mechanisms such as withdrawal, drug and substance abuse, or other unhealthy behaviors. Art gives teens an effective way of coping with troubled times and healthily navigating them.
Benefits Of Art Therapy For Troubled Teens
Art therapy is highly beneficial for teens going through troubling emotional or mental challenges. Here are a few ways art therapy benefits them.
Emotional Regulation
Emotional regulation is the process through which teens with significant emotional challenges can address these emotions without overwhelming them. Art therapy helps teens regulate their emotions by giving them a healthy outlet for any emotions they might grapple with. A therapist helping teens regulate their emotions through art can ask them to draw or paint how they feel their emotions look like.
Such a prompt can help the teen figure out their emotions and face them head-on. That way, the teens find a healthy way of regulating and processing their emotions in a safe and judgment-free environment. The teen could create symbols or metaphors for some of these emotions and experiences to help them feel self-empowerment and control. This helps the teen process similar experiences in the future.
Self-Exploration And Identity
Art therapy helps teens explore their identities and discover who they are and who they hope to be. For example, a therapist can ask a teen to draw or paint an image they would like to associate themselves with. Through such an image, the therapist can identify whether the teen has a healthy or poor perception of themselves.
That information can help the therapist develop an efficient treatment method for the teen. Art therapy can also help teens develop a pastime activity that keeps them active and away from unhelpful behavior.
Enhancing Self-Esteem
Self-esteem challenges are quite common among many teenagers. Art can help your teen identify their perceptions of themselves and become familiar with the negative feelings they associate with themselves. Once the teen understands the origin of these unhealthy perceptions, reframing them and boosting their self-esteem is easier.
Specific Applications Of Art Therapy
Artistic expression is beneficial as a therapy for treating teens going through specific mental health challenges. Here are a few examples of how art therapy can help in these instances.
Art Therapy For Trauma
Teens who have undergone a traumatic experience in the course of their lives can benefit from art therapy in processing their trauma. Art therapy for Trauma and PTSD helps teens to process traumatic experiences in a safe and less intimidating way as compared to traditional talk therapy. Through painting and drawing, teens can unpack the negative emotions associated with their trauma and find healthy ways of diverting this energy.
The therapy sessions can also help teens share negative emotions, which they would ordinarily have a hard time talking about. In the long run, the teens find better ways to heal from the traumatic experience and build their resilience.
Art Therapy For Anxiety And Depression
Anxiety and depression are common mental health challenges for many teens. Teens with anxiety and depression can use art therapy as a healthy outlet for their negative emotions. The therapy sessions can help teens cope with any negative feelings associated with anxiety and depression. Teen Art therapy for depression additionally gives teens an effective way of expressing themselves and improving their self-esteem. That way, teens who experience anxiety or depression from low self-esteem issues can address the issue from its root cause.
Art therapy engages the body as well as the mind. It offers a sensory grounding opportunity for the teen. These mindful moments reduce overwhelming anxious or depressive feelings by allowing the teen to engage in a sensory regulation technique.
Art Therapy For Behavioral Issues
Art therapy for persistent adolescent behavioral issues can be beneficial for teens who have developed unhealthy behavioral tendencies. The therapy sessions can help your teen redirect their negative behaviors to positive activities such as drawing and painting. Similarly, teens who engage in negative behavior can develop self-control and problem-solving skills by dedicating their energy to art. Creative expression through art therapy creates positive behavior, which helps teens grow emotionally and mentally.
Incorporating Art Therapy Into Treatment Plans
Art therapy and traditional talk therapy interventions have many striking differences, however, there are enough similarities to allow for them to be integrated into a cohesive treatment intervention. Art therapy creates a strong synergy between a therapist and a teen by breaching any communication challenges in their therapeutic relationship.
For example, a teen who has challenges speaking about their mental health can use art to describe any negative emotions they may be going through. Additionally, art therapy can help teens who have a challenge with the formal nature of talk therapy to canvas their emotional challenges in a judgment-free environment.
A therapist can engage in reflective talk during or after an artmaking process, encouraging the teen to be thoughtful about the meaning of the process and the art.
Integrating Art Therapy With Traditional Talk Therapy
As we have pointed out above, integrating art therapy with traditional talk therapy can prove to be highly beneficial for a teen.
Integrating talk therapy with art therapy starts by choosing the right therapist. When looking for an art therapist or a therapist who can integrate art with talk therapy, you should consider the following factors:
- Qualifications: Only work with therapists who are qualified and accredited with the regulatory authority in your region. You can find the right therapist to work with in US by contacting the Key Healthcare team and helping your teen get the best art therapy in LA.
- Experience: The answer to the question of whether your teen will get better through art therapy depends on how the therapist administers the intervention. Therapists with years of experience under their belt are best placed to use art therapy as effectively as it should be administered. As such, you should always ask the therapist how long they have been administering art therapy to teens to find out if they have the requisite experience for your teen.
- Rapport With Your Teen: A therapist should have a good rapport when communicating with your teen so that the teen feels comfortable sharing the challenges they are going through. Remember, traditional talk therapy is mostly conversational. The therapist must have a cordial relationship with the teen for the two interventions to work together without pushback. Your teen may wish to have a session with a few therapists to find the best fit for them.
Conclusion
Art therapy is highly effective in helping teens with emotional and mental challenges to navigate them effectively. This intervention helps teens with a wide range of mental health conditions canvas their emotions in a healthy way, develop a strong sense of self-awareness, and process trauma, anxiety, depression, and behavioral challenges.
While art therapy works effectively, it can also integrate seamlessly with traditional therapy methods to provide your teen with the best care. If you want to provide your teen with the art therapy in US, then you should book a session at Key Healthcare today.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The main objective of art therapy is to help your teen develop a healthy outlet to explore their emotions and process them in a safe environment. Art therapy can also help teens get a better understanding of themselves and work through any challenges they have effectively.
Finding a qualified art therapist is vital if you want your teen to realize the best help they need. You should first consider the professional qualifications of the therapist and the experience they have. Finally, you should look at the therapist’s rapport with your teen. You can depend on the team at Key Healthcare’s treatment services if you are looking for reliable art therapy sessions in LA.
No, your teen doesn’t need any background or skill in art to benefit from art therapy. Art therapy is a form of creative expression. That means that as long as your teen can work on the prompts given by the therapist, the sessions should benefit them. Remember, art therapy runs in a judgment-free environment. Therefore, the art won’t be evaluated for talent or skill.
Art therapy can work as a sufficient form of therapy independent of talk therapy. Some forms of challenges troubled teens experience might be too painful or stressful to discuss through speech. Art therapy sessions can reduce the formalities of talk therapy and help the teen navigate their challenges well. However, art therapy and talk therapy can also work together to the advantage of the teen.
No, all teens can benefit from art therapy. However, you need to consult with your therapist to determine whether art therapy works well for your teen. Such decisions are made on a case-by-case basis after the close evaluation of a qualified therapist.
