{"id":209,"date":"2015-07-13T01:51:16","date_gmt":"2015-07-13T01:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lovescounseling.com\/?p=209"},"modified":"2019-01-13T02:08:21","modified_gmt":"2019-01-13T02:08:21","slug":"art-therapy-for-adults-yes-its-for-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovescounseling.com\/index.php\/2015\/07\/13\/art-therapy-for-adults-yes-its-for-adults\/","title":{"rendered":"Art Therapy For Adults; Yes, It’s For Adults!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It’s quite a frequent question that\nonce people know I’m an art therapist, the person asked if I work\nwith kids. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was first interested in the\nfield, I was told I would only get jobs with kids, in mental\nhospitals, and with Autistic kids. While I have worked with all of\nthose population, being in private practice allows me to choose which\nclients\/populations I work with. I work with adults, for a majority\nof my practice. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reasons I choose to work with\nadults with art therapy is that they understand the directives\nbetter, they need more play in their lives, there’s less complexities\nas there are with some cases with children, and it’s good for adults\nto experiment and experience frustration in an accepting environment.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adults understand therapy better in general. Art therapy can be tricky at times with kids because it’s easy to become \u201cthe art lady.” I’ve even been told that a directive or project was \u201cjust some fun with the kids.\u201d 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When’s the last time you saw an adult\nplaying? For some, this is an easy answer. There’s sports teams,\nkids, dogs, and activities where you might see adults playing and\nfeeling joyful. Art therapy is a great opportunity to play around\nwith crayons or colored pencils that most adults haven’t seen since\nchildhood. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of my favorite parts of being an\nart therapist is the ability to witness the process of art with\nadults. Adults usually don’t get to experiment. With art supplies,\nadults experiment with the way a certain art medium. For example, in\nart therapy with adults, I am witness to a client who has not used\ncolored pencils since grade school who can then press hard or soft\nand make lines or waves or various designs without worrying about\nwhat is \u201cright.\u201d It’s a wonderful experience to see someone\nexperiment in an environment where they are comfortable. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adults have different feelings and\napproaches to therapy in general. It helps that most adults are self\naware and know what they are accomplishing in therapy. Since adults\nhave not usually played in a while, adults easily separate their\nreality from imagination. When an adult gets comfortable, they can\nbegin to play and experiment without fear. Art therapy for adults can\nprovide much imagination, play, experimentation and coping skills. \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[52,53,56,7,14,17,27,26,28,54,13,5,19,18,20,21,55,24],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adult-art-therapy","tag-adult-coloring-books","tag-alternative-treatment","tag-anxiety","tag-art-therapy","tag-connecticut","tag-connecticut-art-therapy","tag-connecticut-counselor","tag-connecticut-therapy","tag-coping-skills","tag-counseling","tag-depression","tag-stamford-counseling","tag-stamford-counselor","tag-stamford-therapist","tag-stamford-therapy","tag-treatment","tag-wellness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovescounseling.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovescounseling.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovescounseling.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovescounseling.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovescounseling.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lovescounseling.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210,"href":"https:\/\/lovescounseling.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions\/210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovescounseling.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovescounseling.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovescounseling.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}