Emotional pain is not always able to express itself verbally. It can occasionally be concealed by tightness in the chest, tears, or stillness. An alternative language based on colors, forms, and symbols is provided by art therapy in these situations.
In ways that words frequently cannot, art therapy aids in the processing and expression of pain. Through artistic expression, it offers a secure environment for examining challenging emotions, painful memories, and suppressed sentiments. Many people find that using color and symbolism helps them heal.
This article examines how art therapy uses colors and symbols to help people comprehend their feelings, let go of sorrow, and re-establish a connection with themselves.
Art Therapy: What Is It?
A mental health technique called art therapy blends therapeutic assistance with the artistic process. It is run by qualified experts who assist people in overcoming psychological and emotional obstacles by using art-based methods.
Being an artist is not a requirement. The idea isn’t to build something beautiful – it’s to make meaning. People use sculpture, collage, painting, and sketching to visually explore their emotions and ideas.
The American Art Therapy Association asserts that art therapy improves coping mechanisms, self awareness, and emotional resilience, particularly in those overcoming trauma or battling addiction, anxiety, or depression.
Why visual expression matters?
Emotions are not always simple to describe. It’s possible that some trauma survivors are unable to express their suffering. Others could be too overwhelmed or shy to talk.
Visual expressiveness becomes potent at that point. People can communicate their emotions without speaking by using colors and symbols. A bridge between the inner and outer worlds is provided by this type of creative release, which allows one to let go of things that have been suppressed for too long.
When encouraged to employ symbolic imagery, trauma survivors who engaged in art therapy had better emotional regulation and fewer symptoms of PTSD, according to a 2017 study published in Frontiers in Psychology.
Color as a Language in Art Therapy
Emotions may be rapidly conveyed through color. It goes without saying that a single color can convey an emotion, a memory, or a mood.
Typical emotional connections between colors:
- Red: dread, rage, passion, and intensity.
- Blue: melancholy, serenity, solitude, and tranquility.
- Yellow: happiness, optimism, vitality, and worry.
- Black: emptiness, grief, and protection.
- Green: recuperation, rebirth, and envy.
- Purple: dignity, metamorphosis, and mystery.
Clients in art therapy frequently make intuitive color choices. To show mourning, someone would paint a picture with dark swirls of black and blue. Later, when they start to feel hopeful or like they are growing, they might add green or yellow.
Therapists gradually delve into each person’s own meaning of each hue. This intention is to encourage introspection and emotional release rather than to impose a predetermined meaning.
Telling the Story Through Symbols
Symbols aid in telling a more complex tale, much like colors do. They give shape to feelings that seem overpowering or abstract, enabling people to use imagery to communicate difficult experiences.
Typical art therapy symbols include:
- Trees: development, foundation, and ancestry.
- Houses: home life, childhood, and safety.
- Roads or paths: life’s journey, guidance, and unpredictability.
- Hearts: vulnerability, loss, and love.
- Windows and doors: opportunity, escape, and obstacles.
- Water: feelings, purification, and profundity.
Symbols frequently emerge on their own. A cracked house could be drawn by someone dealing with childhood trauma. A person who is grieving might draw a chair that is empty. These pictures turn into metaphors, which are visual cues to the emotions they convey.
A client may sketch a river that is obstructed by stones throughout one session. The stones may migrate over time, indicating changes in emotional flow and healing.
Symbolic Distance’s Safety
The ability of colors and symbols to provide emotional distance is a major factor in their effectiveness in art therapy. Clients might metaphorically represent a horrific incident instead of reliving it.
Processing traumatic memories without feeling overwhelmed is made easier by their metaphorical distance.
According to a 2016 study published in Art Therapy Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, those who used symbolic imagery in art therapy sessions reported feeling less emotionally distressed and having more capacity to think back on challenging situations.
Those who have suffered from trauma or complex bereavement will find this extremely beneficial.
Real-World Example: Using Color and Symbols to Heal
After Lena, 28, survived emotional trauma, she began art therapy. She had trouble speaking. She was advised by her therapist to start with colors.
“At first, I painted a lot of black. I didn’t even consider it. I then placed a red line across the page one day. I hadn’t previously permitted myself to feel fury, but that red felt like it. A few months later, I began incorporating yellow and green. Even through I didn’t say much, I was getting better.
Lena’s narrative demonstrates the potent, wordless ways in which colors and symbols may convey suffering and change.
How a Session Could Appear
When discussing emotional distress in a standard art therapy session, the therapist may:
Ask the customer to select colors that reflect their emotions. Offer to illustrate a scene or symbol from a recent dream or memory. Ask open-ended questions while you examine the artwork, such as “What does this shape or color mean to you?”, “How would you enhance this picture to depict healing?”.
Customers are free to speak as much or as little as they choose. The voice is the artwork.
Introducing Colors and Symbols in the Home
As part of your self-care or healing regimen, you can start investigating this technique at home, however it is best to engage with a licensed art therapist.
Try This:
- Use solely colors while painting a mood; avoid using shapes or imagery. Express your feelings through your paintings. Create a symbol collage by cutting out magazine emblems that represent your feelings at the moment.
- Visual Journaling: Draw a journey through your life using colors, designating each stage with a distinct hue.
- Color timeline: Draw a journey through your life using colors, designating each stage with a distinct hue.
Particularly when you’re feeling stressed or reflecting, these hobbies might provide relaxation and insight.
Concluding Remarks: Art As A Healing Language
Not all suffering requires words. It need color at times. It occasionally requires a sign that only you can decipher.
Art therapy provides a creative, compassionate, and safe means of processing emotional distress via the use of colors and symbols. It lets you examine what’s within without passing judgement. It opens the path to healing by giving form to things that were before invisible.
Being an artist is not a requirement. All you have to do is be willing to communicate. You go closer to serenity, understanding, and release with each pencil or brushstroke.
SOURCE: ART OF HEALTHY LIVING
