My Journey with Art Therapy
With a history of anxiety, addiction, and depression on both sides of my family, my mother believed it was best for our family to start therapy when I was around the age of 7. At that time it was cognitive behavioral therapy. Sometimes I would play with toys and games while talking to my therapist and other times I would just sit on her couch for the whole session. At the age of 9 my father died unexpectedly of a heart attack. At that time my mother moved us to a center specific to families who are experiencing new grief. who have recently lost someone. I was added to a therapy group for children who lost a parent.
That time in my life following my father’s death is so clear for me at some points and so hazy at others, which I have learned is my brain protecting me. I brought up the group therapy because we practiced art therapy every week, and I had not even realized that is what my grief therapy group was centered around until I started researching art therapy for this blog post. To the best of my memory the pieces of art I made were:
- a clay object to commemorate my father (I think it was in the shape of a heart…
- A mini flip book containing ten reasons I love my dad. Those are the only two pieces of art I remember vividly.
- A box with pictures I associated with my father on the lid, and important objects I associated with him in the box. I think we made the box to contain all the pieces of art we had made in our time at the center as well.
In researching for and writing this post I am able to realize the power of art therapy. I had been so skeptical of it when we began learning about different therapeutic approaches for people dealing with trauma. But, something clicked in my head and I realized that therapy group was so essential to my grieving process. Focusing on using art to celebrate the parents we had lost gave us the safety and comfort to open up to one another about our feelings and what we were going through emotionally. I think the perfect therapeutic combination for me at that time was art therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. I am so grateful for this class for giving me the tools, materials, and space to realize this truth about my past. It may even inspire me to take up art therapy again.