Why Art Therapy?

Art therapy is often imagined as a kind of creative playground. The therapist supervises a process that is quite therapeutic in its own way, but it often has little bearing on concrete outcomes. Art therapy, however, can be much more than that. It can alter core beliefs or schemas that often underpin lifelong troublesome ways of being in the world. Art Therapy can be the key to unlocking the door of the unconscious and allowing for an in-depth healing process to begin.

If you’ve ever marvelled at the primitive sketches of the Lascaux caves or the rock markings of Arnhem Land in Australia, you’ve witnessed the power of imagery. Imagery has been used, to create and share narratives since the earliest recordings of time. In fact, long before modern language, movable type and social media, images, symbols and objects were used to communicate deep cultural and personal meanings.

It’s no surprise that death and loss feature heavily in ancient imagery, since imagery has the power to both define what it is to be human and to elucidate and transform difficult human experience. From masks worn for self-preservation and protection to the use of symbols to heal sickness, art is a seasoned healer that transcends time and verbal language.

Why Art Therapy?

The well known and respected American art therapist Judith Rubin (1978, p. 206) said,

from the cave to the Sunday painter, normal people in ordinary settings have been using art for personally helpful purposes”.

Our theoretical understanding of how imagery works and how art can heal is a mystery to some extent, however, a great deal of study and development of the psychological effects of imagery has taken place in the last hundred years to bring art therapy into the forefront as a major contributor of the healing practices.

Whether you’re a psychologist, a social worker, a counsellor working in mental health, family therapy, or an artist wishing to channel your passion into helping others, the knowledge you will acquire from doing CECAT’s Diploma Course will equip you to co-pilot journeys to parts of clients’ selves crucial to healing. You will help them to live the life they couldn’t otherwise imagine whilst gaining deep personal insight, yourself.