Unleashing Creativity with Clay

Art therapy with clay is an expressive form of therapy that involves creating sculptures, pots, and other art forms using various types of clay. A trained art therapist facilitates this therapy, guiding individuals in their clay-making process while helping them explore their emotions, develop coping mechanisms, and gain personal insights.

The use of clay for therapeutic purposes dates back to ancient times. Clay has been used for centuries by diverse cultures from all over the world, like Africa, Asia, and the Mediterranean. The therapeutic benefits of clay were formally recognised in art therapy in the 1940s, when psychiatrist and art therapist Margaret Naumberg used the medium of clay to help her patients express their thoughts and emotions and thereby promote healing.

Since then, clay art therapy has evolved and has been used in various mental health settings, including hospitals, rehabilitation centres, schools, and private therapy practices.

Clay is a versatile material that can be moulded, shaped and textured in a variety of ways, making it an ideal medium for art therapy. Clay can be used to create sculptures, masks, and other three-dimensional objects that can represent emotions, experiences, and inner states. Art therapists may use clay to help clients to treat a range of emotional and mental health conditions such as trauma, grief, ADHD, substance abuse disorders, eating disorders and depression, as well as to promote relaxation, mindfulness and self-awareness.

The tactile nature of clay can also be soothing and grounding, making it a useful tool for clients who struggle with anxiety or dissociation.

During the process of handling the clay, individuals may experience a range of emotions, from frustration and stress to joy and excitement. The therapist encourages individuals to express their emotions through their clay creations, providing guidance and prompts as needed. In the end, the therapist helps individuals reflect on their creations, helping them examine their emotions and thoughts.

In the Book “The Healing Art of Clay Therapy by Patricia Sherwood (2004)”, Patricia addresses that with clay, you can express the inexpressible. No words are required to mould, shape, carve, or hollow out this expressive medium free from verbal fluency requirements. Clay gives the opportunity to become deeply expressive. Feelings belong to the world of intangibles and, therefore, are difficult to understand or transform because they can not be viewed or touched.

Clay is easily shaped yet also capable of such clear forms and lines. This gives clients the opportunity to layer into the deepest levels of their experience. The clay has a remarkable ability to reveal the unknown. There is often an ah-ha experience, the moment of insight that arises from the participation between the hands that shape the clay and the consciousness of the client.

The therapist observes the individual’s movements and encourages them to explore their emotions and experiences through the clay. Every movement of the hands leaves an imprint on the clay. Every impulse destroys and creates simultaneously. To create requires the courage to destroy. Individuals who have been overwhelmed by destruction lose their ability to create. Clay work based entirely on our sense of touch has the ability to reconnect us with the core of our identity.

To trust the hands more than the head and to rely on motor impulses in the hands rather than on cognitive concepts to reshape learned behaviour has proven very valuable in art therapy sessions.

When clients touch the clay and investigate it, they become the object of their investigation because as they touch, they are also being touched. The clay makes every movement of their hands visible. It reflects their actions. In order to support how our hands relate to the sense of touch, the art therapist needs to observe closely which parts of the client’s hands are in primary contact with the material and how the hands move. Full contact of the hands with the material – feet on the ground – hands and arms aligned with the body and the use of lots of material is the most committed way of working. Whatever the hands can handle, the client can handle.

The senses are highly activated in the here and now, as touching always happens in the present moment. The felt senses become visible in the clay; therefore, internal movements can be externalised in the environment. By manipulating the clay, individuals are able to explore their feelings and thoughts in a tangible way. It also promotes relaxation, as the process of moulding and manipulating clay can be a calming experience. Further, it can assist individuals in learning to regulate their emotions. By exploring their emotions through the clay, individuals can learn to identify and manage their feelings in a healthier way.