This post goes out to all our readers who have just about had it with winter. Whether you’ve been in hibernation since pre-Winter Storm Juno, watched everything on your Netflix queue, or just can’t wait for avocados to come back into peak season, we’re here to help. The following art therapy techniques are designed to stimulate the imagination and warm the soul even in the coldest of temperatures, with easy exercises for anyone from age five to 100. What better way to stay locked up in your apartment than bundle up and let the creative juices start flowing?
Art therapy is a form of therapy predicated on the belief that artistic expression has the power to help us in healing, in self-esteem or simply in chilling out. It’s unique in that most other forms of therapy rely on language as the foremost mode of communication, whereas art requires something different, something harder to define.
We’re not art therapists, and the techniques below are only suggestions based on practices familiar to the art therapy community. But for those hungry for a creative outlet to relieve the tension that tends to build up this time of year, the practices below may help. They require few materials and no artistic background — in fact, the less art you make, the better. The following suggestions are less about the final product, and more about the transformation that occurs along the way.
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10. Make a morning drawing (every morning)
What do you do first thing in the morning? Check Facebook? Chug coffee? Read the paper? Change things up a bit by creating a morning drawing before you even get out of bed. Recreate last night’s dream or draft out the day’s intentions, either way, you may be surprised by what you can create in the first moments of the day, in that rare time spent transitioning from sleeping to waking.
For more art therapy suggestions, check out our previous posts here, here and here.
