Heartfelt Support has recently started offering Art Therapy in Adelaide. We thought it might interest you to learn a little about the history of this relatively new discipline.
Art therapy is a type of psychotherapy that uses creative expression and the arts to enhance mental and emotional health. But where did the ideas come from?
Beginning in the early 20th century, it has a lengthy and illustrious history with roots in both psychology and the arts.
The Austrian psychiatrist Carl Jung, who thought that the creative process could be used as a means of exploring the unconscious mind, is credited with developing art therapy. In his work with patients, Jung frequently used art and other forms of creativity, and his theories on the benefits of creativity as a form of therapy had an impact on the growth of art therapy as a discipline.
Another important figure in the early history of art therapy is the British psychiatrist Adrian Hill, who began using art as therapy in the 1930s while battling tuberculosis. Hill discovered that creating art helped him express his feelings and deal with his illness, so he started using it as a therapeutic method with his patients.
The work of Margaret Naumburg and Edith Kramer helped art therapy become a recognized field of study in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s. Naumburg, a pioneer in the field, was influenced by Jung’s theories on the therapeutic value of creativity and created a type of art therapy called “dynamic symbolism,” which emphasized the symbolic meaning of the artwork produced by patients. Kramer was a painter and art therapist who used her creative abilities to assist her patients in expressing their emotions and resolving psychological problems. She was another key figure in the development of art therapy.
Since its inception, art therapy has been used with a wide range of populations, including children, adolescents, adults, and seniors. It is sometimes used in conjunction with other forms of therapy, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, equine or psychoanalytic therapy, and is regulalrly applied in a variety of settings, including hospitals, schools, and private practices.
Anxiety, depression, trauma, and substance abuse are just a few of the many mental health conditions that art therapy has been proven to be effective in treating. It can also be helpful for people with physical or developmental disabilities because it can give them a way to express themselves and communicate.
Art therapy has some high-profile participants. Singer-songwriter Demi Lovato and actor Jim Carrey are two well-known people who have used art therapy. Lovato has been open about her use of art therapy as a way of coping with her mental health issues. Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, has spoken publicly about how art therapy helped him deal with the trauma of his mother’s death and the pressures of royal life.
If you wish to tackle some heavy academic research on the uses of art therapy, we recommend “Art Is Fun, Art Is Serious Business, and Everything in between: Learning from Art Therapy Research and Practice with Children and Teens” which can be found here
There is more information on our Art Therapy in Adelaide offering on this page, or you can use this form to start talking to us about Art Therapy.