Ever wonder how art can help improve your teen’s mental health? Your teen struggles to express the challenges that they face, and they are in a vulnerable time of development, so why wouldn’t you consider introducing them to teen art therapy?
Teen art therapy in LA is used as a creative medium to help your teen creatively express their complex emotions and find ways to cope with this difficult period of development. This article will explore the different activities used in art therapy. These activities are carefully constructed and facilitated to help your teen through these rough times. Let’s have a look at what art therapy can offer you!
What is Teen Art Therapy?
Art therapy uses artistic expression to diagnose and treat psychological disorders. Teen art therapy is a form of expressive therapy encompassing all-rounded treatment, effectively supporting creative expression and personal and relational goals. Teenagers are much more likely to be receptive to art therapy as it lacks the stigmatizing associations of traditional therapy. It enables them to convey their thoughts and emotions through artistic expression, eliminating the burden of complex verbal exchanges. Art therapy offers a suitable and interesting alternative to talk therapy.
Benefits of Teen Art Therapy
Art therapy benefits for teens include:
- Emotional Expression and Communication: Teen art therapy provides a medium to communicate feelings through artistic expression, and this is especially important if verbal expression proves difficult for your teen.
- Stress Reduction and Relaxation: Art-making provides a safe outlet for trauma relief, reducing stressful thoughts and promoting relaxation. This will benefit your teen by offering a space for regulation and decompression.
- Self-esteem and Self-awareness Development: Teen art therapy helps teens refine their artistic skills. This builds their confidence and self-esteem and helps create their self-awareness.
- Building Healthy Coping Mechanisms: Rather than engage in negative behaviors such as substance abuse for stress relief, teens can direct their anger, shame, pain, and other difficult feelings into making art, thereby building healthy coping mechanisms.
How Art Therapy is Done at Key Healthcare
Teen art therapy at Key Healthcare focuses on creative expression. It is suitable for all teens and has the advantage of non-reliance on verbal exchange. Teens get to create beautiful masterpieces while simultaneously expressing their thoughts and feelings. The creative process in teen art therapy can be used to treat various psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, stress, and substance use disorders, among others. Teens with depression appear to get better when they express their anxieties through art therapy.
Step1: Initial Assessment
Our art therapist carefully guides the teen during the assessment. Teens are involved in the assessment by choosing the medium that works best for them. They also discuss their art as they try to communicate what it means for them and how it makes them feel. This allows the therapist to understand their thinking process and gain insight into their inner world. Talking whilst making art is less intimidating than traditional talk therapy.
- Describing the goals to be achieved in art therapy.
- Guiding the teen when choosing a medium for self-expression from the different teen art therapy activities. They could choose to paint, draw, use sculptures, or collage.
- Guiding the teen through the art-making process and discussing their results.
An initial assessment can sound intimidating, however, this consultation simply offers both teen and therapist to begin building rapport and becoming used to the shared space. Your teen will begin to become aware of the art materials and be allowed to engage in a non-directive introduction to art making.
An initial assessment is usually about three sessions. In the initial session, teens are allowed to draw something they want. This differs from the second session, where they are given the topic of what they will create. This topic often begins in a concrete manner, such as drawing a person or their family.
In the third session, they are asked to move into a symbolic realm by creating something that represents their current emotional state. This assessment aims to interpret the symbolism used by the teen to gain deeper insight into their state of mind.
Step 2: Choosing Art Materials
Choosing art materials for teen art therapy is important, as certain materials may evoke sensory stimulation. Note that art therapy is not just about painting and drawing. The appropriate art materials help in relieving tension and allow for transformation to take place. For example, converting torn pieces of paper into artwork may be a form of symbolism in teen art therapy. It may symbolize transforming from a negative emotional space into emotional healing.
Examples of Art Supplies Used in Teen Art Therapy
Some art supplies used in teen art therapy include crayons, colored pencils, paint, collages, oil pastels, and markers.
Art supplies can even include found objects, magazines, and personal objects – the sky is the limit.
How the Choice of Materials Affects the Therapy Process
The aim of teen art therapy is for teens to be in touch with their emotions. Choosing the right materials for teen art therapy will evoke a sensory stimulation that activates the right brain hemisphere, which is responsible for emotional regulation and communication.
Some mediums are better at evoking certain emotions than others, for example clay work is particularly helpful for strong emotions such as anger.
Step 3: Art-Making Process
Teen art therapy aims to utilize the art-making process to help teens explore self-expression through creative expression. Art therapy techniques for teenagers include sculpting, photography, painting, drawing, doodling, collage, finger painting, coloring, and working with clay.
Drawing and Sketching
Drawing, one of the art therapy techniques for teenagers, is a therapeutic activity. They can tap into their visceral inner experience and express pain and stressful emotions. Using colors and different mediums such as pencils, crayons, or pastels, your teen can bring out their inner emotions and give life to those intense feelings that they lack words to describe.
Some of the benefits of drawing are:
- Reducing stress by focusing a teen’s energy on the creative process rather than on their anxiety.
- Boosting mindfulness as your teen can stay mindful and engaged in the activity.
- Drawing can help your teen find an optimal state of engagement.
Some of the sample exercises and prompts that your teen can take part in are:
- Drawing cartoon versions of people they know.
- Drawing caricatures of famous people they admire or know.
- Drawing anime characters.
- Drawing outfits that they love.
- Drawing self-portraits.
Painting
Painting has been used to rehabilitate traumatized individuals as it provides a conduit for emotional release. Color has often been associated with emotions. For example, bright colors have been associated with happiness, and dull colors have been associated with negative feelings. A knowledge of color helps teens with describing their emotions in their artwork.
Painting can involve spray painting, watercolors, and acrylic paints. Each type of paint offers a different sensory and emotional experience. These tools help in constructing and manipulating images. Painting can also involve a free-form approach to creating images from a black canvas.
Sculpture and Clay Work
Sculpture therapy allows teens to express themselves by creating something tangible. This creation of a physical form of art allows teens to externalize their negative thoughts. Teens can confront their thoughts head-on due to the tactile nature of clay work. Clay work also helps teens develop problem-solving abilities and communication skills.
Examples of Sculpting Activities
The three methods of sculpture-making are modeling, carving, and joining.
Collage and Mixed Media
Collage encourages teens to embrace creativity and authenticity. This enables teens to express themselves without restraints, leading them to a path of self-discovery. Collage work also encourages teens to shift their perspective and realize multiple solutions to problems exist.
Teens can use different materials, textures, and colors in collages for symbolic art. These combinations may symbolize their emotions, beliefs, or personal experiences.
In mixed media collage, teens may use discarded or found objects in their artwork. This repurposing of materials that would have otherwise been thrown away can symbolize to teens that they can repurpose their lives into something greater.
Group Art Activities
Group art therapy for teens can help them feel a sense of community and belonging. It also helps provide a safe space for teens to express their emotions and interact with other teens. Initiating collaborative projects for teens encourages social interaction and support among teens. Some of the collaborative projects teens can take part in are:
- A collaborative art contest where teens team up to make a painting or sculpture.
- An ongoing group mural.
- Taking part in a group magazine collage.
Group art therapy for teens brings together teenagers from different backgrounds and gives them a sense of creative purpose, encouraging social interaction and support.
Step 4: Examining and Discussing the Artwork
Certain formal artwork elements are used to gain insight into a teen’s mental health. Such elements include the combination of movement, repetition, mixture of color, and dynamic contour. For art therapy progress evaluation, art therapists consider the interactions of these formal elements to examine and discuss the artwork.
This allows the therapist to understand what your teen is expressing throughout the art-making process. Very often, the process is full of rich information, not just the finished artwork.
How Therapists Interpret the Artwork
Artwork is interpreted based on certain formal elements’ presence, absence, domination, or interaction. For instance, the interconnectedness of several elements may indicate how stuck a teen feels. This could indicate there is room for change and influence the treatment options.
This has a subjective nature; therefore, information gained from the teen also plays a significant role in the interpretation. For example, a therapist may ask your teen to explain the choice of color or image and use this information to enhance their interpretation.
The therapist can also reflect these interpretations to your teen and delve deeper into an understanding of the artwork together.
Step 5: Encouraging Dialogue and Self-Reflection
There needs to be a therapeutic relationship between the teen and the art therapist. This allows the therapist to encourage dialogue, as the teen gives insight into the meaning of their art by communicating how it makes them feel.
Art Therapy Addressing Specific Mental Health Issues
Art therapy distracts teens from ruminating thoughts that may overwhelm them. It redirects their energy to art, an engaging and mindful activity.
- Art therapy will also offer an opportunity to create a metaphor around the teen’s anxiety and depression. This can help them feel that they are more powerful than these feelings, which will increase their resilience.
- Art gives teens a platform to remodel their traumatic situations using creativity. This is done by identifying their traumatic thoughts and feelings and transforming them into art. When contained in a therapeutic process that includes sensory grounding, a teen can reprocess traumatic memories and regain a sense of calm.
- Teen art therapy is a healthy coping mechanism that improves mood, relieves stress, and promotes self-discovery. Teens taking part in teen art therapy are far less likely to engage in chaotic behaviors to escape their underlying issues.
Conclusion
Your teen’s artistic skills get enhanced while their overall mental health improves. Teens also participate in an artistic community through activities such as group art therapy. To top it all, this kind of therapy can be a fun way for teens to deal with any underlying issues and get on a path to self-discovery. Learn more about art therapy opportunities for your teen by contacting Key Healthcare.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
There are various methods to find a qualified teen art therapist. These include researching qualified therapists in your area, getting referrals, and searching online.
Teen art therapy is suitable for all teenagers. However, its execution will depend on the teen’s personality and interests, mental health needs, and developmental stage. This is seen when different teens choose different art mediums to express themselves.
There are few to no restrictions for teen art therapy as it can be effective for children as young as three. Moreover, teens do not have to consider themselves artistic to benefit.
You can support your teen during art therapy sessions by fostering a positive and nurturing environment, encouraging regular attendance, acknowledging your teen’s progress, and staying informed.
Teen art therapy can be used to diagnose and treat substance use disorders. Key Healthcare offers alternative forms of therapy that offer teen drug abuse treatment. Their services are available in LA and the surrounding areas.
