Art Therapy
How does Art Therapy help my Mental Health?
With deeper understanding, solutions can be created for empowered change.
Do you feel like you’re at a crossroads or like something is missing in your life? Do you want more authentic relationships in your life and with yourself?
Have you considered Art Therapy?
Art Therapy focuses on the process of creating rather than an art outcome. It isn’t about creating a ‘masterpiece’, nor is it necessarily about creating something aesthetically pleasing. Rather, Art Therapy is about the process of expressing emotion and in doing so becoming more aware of our body’s senses and the wisdom it holds.
The art created within an Art Therapy session with a qualified practitioner has a two-fold effect. On the one hand, it acts as a release of emotion. On the other hand, the art serves as a visual representation of that emotion with which the art-maker can dialogue and gain further understanding.
More and more research points to how we store emotional and traumatic experiences at a cellular level. In his work on trauma research, Van der Kolk (2018) speaks of how “the body keeps the score”. This storing of events often only re-traumatises a person through just verbalising them.
Sometimes the trauma took place pre-language, and therefore there are no words to describe the emotions felt. However, a person can re-frame their experience through creative, expressive interventions with a safe, soft-sided approach the art making provides.
The representation of body felt sense and re-framing of experience helps people to externalise the issue, look at it from different perspectives, dialogue with it, and do so in a safe, contained process at the pace they lead. Therefore, the creative process acts as a vehicle for navigating issues and gaining understanding from a deeper and wiser part of the self.
Get In Touch
Kerryn Knight is an art therapist, professional supervisor, and the founder of Empowered Art Therapy.
Get in touch with Kerryn today to discover how Art Therapy can help you.
Book Your Free ‘Meet and Greet’ with Kerryn Today
At this free, 15-minute ‘Meet and Greet’ you have a chance to make sure you feel comfortable with me, see some of the processes I may use in a typical session, and take a tour of my specialist centre for mental health – Kindred Art Space in Frankston, on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula.
Three Schools of Formal Training in Art Therapy
As an Art Therapist & Supervisor, in private practice since 2008, I bring my life experience coupled with three schools of formal Art Therapy training. These schools include Sandplay Therapy, The Transpersonal, and MIECAT’s Form of Companioned Inquiry and all have changed my life.
Sandplay Therapy
Using metaphor and symbols in Sandplay Therapy we can re-frame a story and look at all of its aspects from a different perspective. This helps to make meaning of a situation and gain more insight into how we interact in different circumstances and the patterns of our responses. With a greater understanding of ourselves, we can make adjustments for a healthier way of dealing with stress and anxiety in our lives.
Learn more about how Sandplay Therapy can you below.
The Transpersonal
The Transpersonal focuses on that which extends beyond, trans, the personal or individual in order to look at the broader aspects of our lives. This psycho-spiritual aspect of Kerryn’s work includes respectful integration of ritual and ceremony, influenced by Indigenous culture, to embrace the powerful benefits of rite-of-passage for all ages to embrace life transitions.
The Transpersonal work I have engaged in throughout my own life has helped me navigate very painful experiences in order to transform them into meaningful life purposes. I am now humbled by the ability to share and therefore pay it forward to my clients to support them navigate their life challenges and transitions.
Call Kerryn today to learn more about how The Transpersonal Art Therapy can help you.
Companioned Inquiry
The companioned inquiry process invites openness and curiosity to the therapeutic relationship with yourself as an inquiring client and Kerryn the therapist. Through these values, you and Kerryn can walk together on a therapeutic metaphoric journey in a landscape of safety at your pace to see what emerges and unfolds within the creative, experiential, and expressive processes Kerryn facilitates with you.
This process provides a structure that brings the mind and body together in a grounding and transformative platform for positive and lasting change. Through this form of inquiry, I have been able to rise above patterns that no longer serve me on my ongoing journey of transformation.
Call Kerryn today to learn more about how Companioned Inquiry Art Therapy can help you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Would you like to know more about Empowered Art Therapy’s range of services, what to expect in a typical session, and how Art Therapy can benefit you?
Then explore our full range of frequently asked questions below.