Talk therapy can be a safe space to explore emotions, gain insights, and start healing. Naming emotions, placing them in time and context, and reflecting on how they shape us are all powerful tools. But what happens when life hurts too much to put into words? Sometimes this struggle to communicate with your therapist may leave you feeling stuck, and may even make you consider discontinuing therapy, making you lose valuable time and the opportunity to heal. Therapists are trained to help clients describe affective and thought processes you may not be aware of.
Emotions play a huge role in our decisions, reactions, and overall behaviour but they are sometimes hidden from verbal processing. This is especially true when those feelings are tied to traumatic events.
After trauma, key regions of the brain involved in memory, speech and emotional regulation undergo significant changes that impact how past negative events are processed, remembered and expressed. The amygdala is a small part of your brain that plays a crucial role in detecting and responding to threats. After trauma, the amygdala becomes hyperactive, heightening emotional responses and making it more sensitive to perceived dangers, even when the threat has passed. This hypersensitivity leads to increased anxiety, hyper-vigilance to potential threats and emotional dysregulation. On the other hand, the part of the brain in charge of memory and learning (the hippocampus), is often impaired after trauma leading to fragmented or disjointed memories. People with trauma may remember isolated sensations or emotions vividly (like a sound, smell, or flash of light) but struggle to piece together a coherent narrative. When a person cannot access a full, cohesive memory, it becomes difficult to describe the experience or associated feelings in a structured way. At the same time, the Broca’s area, located in the frontal part of the left hemisphere of the brain (essential in speech production) may become disconnected from the amygdala and the hippocampus, resulting in increased difficulty verbalizing traumatic memories and feelings.
So, how does therapy work when words fail?
Neuropsychiatrist and holocaust survivor Boris Cyrulnik said art becomes the survival weapon for those whose reality is too painful to articulate. Using different creative processes, including art therapy, offers a new language to explore and express feelings. Whether it's painting, drawing, sculpting, or another art form, creative processes allow the exploration of emotions and experiences in a way that bypasses the need for words.
Art as a form of expression isn’t new—it’s been around since the dawn of human history. Some cultures use music, rituals, and other creative outlets as their main forms of healing, allowing a deeper integration between the body and the mind.
Types of Art Therapy and How They Help:
Visual Art Therapy: Using materials like paint, markers, or clay, visual art therapy helps you express thoughts and feelings that may be hard to put into words. It’s particularly useful for exploring trauma, anxiety, or depression in a non-verbal way.
Expressive Arts Therapy: A blend of multiple forms of creative expression like music, visual art, and drama. This approach helps people explore emotions through different sensory experiences, offering deeper insight.
Narrative Art Therapy: If you’ve ever found comfort in storytelling, this type of therapy might resonate with you. Creating art that tells a story—about yourself or a larger metaphor—helps you reframe personal experiences.
Cognitive-Behavioral Art Therapy (CBAT): Combining the principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with creative expression, this therapy helps reframe thoughts that have become dysfunctional into more adaptive patterns through the act of creating.
Psychoanalytic Art Therapy: Based on Freudian and Jungian psychoanalysis, this form of art therapy explores unconscious thoughts to uncover deeply rooted issues. The therapist works with the client to interpret symbolic content in the artwork, drawing connections to unconscious thoughts and desires.
Mindfulness-Based Art Therapy (MBAT): This approach combines mindfulness techniques with the creative process to reduce stress. This form of therapy is helpful for individuals dealing with anxiety, trauma, and chronic pain, and can promote relaxation and emotional regulation.
Group Art Therapy: Group art therapy involves multiple participants who create art together under the guidance of a therapist. It can take place in hospitals, community centers, or other group settings. Encourages social connection, peer support, and a sense of community, while allowing individuals to express their feelings. It is particularly effective for people dealing with social anxiety, trauma, or those in recovery programs.
Sandplay Therapy: This therapy uses sand, miniatures, and a sandbox to create visual stories or environments. The client arranges figures and objects in the sand to express feelings or life situations. Clients use miniature objects to create a scene in the sandbox. The arrangement of figures can symbolize relationships, conflicts, or emotional states. Sand play helps clients access unconscious feelings and work through issues non-verbally. This therapy is often used for children but can also be beneficial for adults, particularly in trauma recovery.
Ecopsychology Art Therapy: This approach connects individuals to nature through creative expression. Ecopsychology art therapy encourages clients to create art using natural materials (leaves, stones, wood, etc.) and to reflect on their relationship with the natural world. Creating sculptures or collages from natural objects, painting landscapes, or drawing based on experiences in nature. This type of art therapy promotes healing through nature-based art and fosters a sense of connection to the environment. It is particularly effective for individuals dealing with stress, anxiety, or a sense of disconnection from the world.
Body Mapping: This form of art therapy involves creating large-scale drawings of the body to explore physical sensations, emotions, and identity. It is often used in trauma work, where individuals may feel disconnected from their bodies. The individual outlines their body on a large piece of paper and fills in the drawing with colors, symbols, or images that represent different emotions, experiences, or body sensations. Helps individuals explore their relationship with their body and emotions, often used for trauma survivors, people with body image issues, or those dealing with chronic illness.
Movement and Healing as Therapy
Art therapy isn't just limited to manual work; it often involves movement as well. Feeling “stuck” emotionally can sometimes manifest physically. Whether it's through dance, yoga, or simply walking, movement therapies reconnect your mind and body, helping you move through difficult emotions. Studies have even shown that yoga-based therapies are effective in treating mild to major depression, thanks to their influence on the vagus nerve—the nerve that helps regulate mood and stress.
Musical expression as Therapy
Music has a profound effect on emotional processing. Listening to calming music lowers levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, promoting relaxation. Music also stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, helping the body rest and recover. Previous research has found that singing benefits the autonomic nervous system by reducing "fight-or-flight" stress responses by stimulating vagus nerve activity. The vagus nerve represents the main nerves of the parasympathetic nervous system which controls body functions such as digestion, heart rate and immune system. Since the vagus nerve is connected to the vocal cords and throat muscles, singing becomes a diaphragmatic breathing exercise, enhancing heart-rate variability and overall vagal tone.
Creative therapies allow us to find innovative perspectives about ourselves and the experiences we’ve had, transforming adversity into an opportunity for growth. It helps us hold space for our suffering, allowing us to move through it rather than escape from it. As the art therapist Stephen K. Levine once said, “The therapeutic power of art rests not in its elimination of suffering but rather in its capacity to hold us in the midst of that suffering.”
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