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Art therapy fosters the creative impulse that is within each of us, the part of us which has the will to work towards health and healing. Creative art-making facilitated by a trained art therapist allows your inner self to find expression, and provides the opportunity to use your created images to gain understanding and perspective.  The creative process is inherently healing. It draws on your strengths, and helps you to navigate the sometimes difficult terrain between inner experience and outer reality. Symbolic expression allows you to maintain a safe distance from deeply painful experience, while providing containment for intense emotions. With the support of the art therapist, this process can enable you to work through difficult feelings without feeling overwhelmed or out of control.

Using art for self expression helps you to find safe ways to gain insight into anxiety-provoking material, look at the issues from a new vantage point and to find creative solutions to problems.  Healthy coping skills are reinforced through the choosing of materials and the creating and completing of projects; self esteem is boosted, mastery and self control are enhanced and a sense of satisfaction and competence is experienced. In addition, most people find creative activity to be pleasurable, so that the serious "work" of therapy is experienced as a positive interaction between you, the therapist, and the created art work. Art therapists facilitate the creative process, empathize and listen in a respectful manner, intervene when needed and support the growth and psychological health of the child, adolescent, or adult.

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