Art Therapy For Adults; Yes, It’s For Adults!
It’s quite a frequent question that once people know I’m an art therapist, the person asked if I work with kids.
When I was first interested in the field, I was told I would only get jobs with kids, in mental hospitals, and with Autistic kids. While I have worked with all of those population, being in private practice allows me to choose which clients/populations I work with. I work with adults, for a majority of my practice.
The reasons I choose to work with adults with art therapy is that they understand the directives better, they need more play in their lives, there’s less complexities as there are with some cases with children, and it’s good for adults to experiment and experience frustration in an accepting environment.
Adults understand therapy better in general. Art therapy can be tricky at times with kids because it’s easy to become “the art lady.” I’ve even been told that a directive or project was “just some fun with the kids.” Wait, wait, no, that was not the entire intention with that directive. I understand that some people don’t understand art therapy but it’s easy to explain it to adult most of the time.
When’s the last time you saw an adult playing? For some, this is an easy answer. There’s sports teams, kids, dogs, and activities where you might see adults playing and feeling joyful. Art therapy is a great opportunity to play around with crayons or colored pencils that most adults haven’t seen since childhood.
One of my favorite parts of being an art therapist is the ability to witness the process of art with adults. Adults usually don’t get to experiment. With art supplies, adults experiment with the way a certain art medium. For example, in art therapy with adults, I am witness to a client who has not used colored pencils since grade school who can then press hard or soft and make lines or waves or various designs without worrying about what is “right.” It’s a wonderful experience to see someone experiment in an environment where they are comfortable.
Adults have an understanding that they are using their imagination. Adults don’t get to imagine things too often. Problem solving sounds like a task instead of something delightful. But in art therapy, problem solving includes what to draw or what colored pencil to use next. Sometimes kids have difficulty describing reality and distinguishing it from their imagination. But adults seem to stick to reality often enough that most adults in an art therapy session need some direction and some encouragement to play. Since there is usually a separation by adults between reality and imagination, at times, it’s easier to work with adults.
Adults have different feelings and approaches to therapy in general. It helps that most adults are self aware and know what they are accomplishing in therapy. Since adults have not usually played in a while, adults easily separate their reality from imagination. When an adult gets comfortable, they can begin to play and experiment without fear. Art therapy for adults can provide much imagination, play, experimentation and coping skills.