Art Therapy Program

Seeking help for addiction means finding the right rehab for your individual treatment needs. You see that rehabs provide different therapies and services based on their core philosophy and location. You also know you need individual, group, and family therapy for your best recovery. But what benefits do other therapies, such as an art therapy program, provide?

What is an Art Therapy Program?

In an art therapy program, you express yourself in healthy and creative ways. This expression taps into your imagination and helps you learn how to better communicate your innermost feelings. Through this communication, you eventually begin to open up about past experiences.

Arts used in this addiction therapy include:

• Painting
• Sculpting
• Acting
• Dancing
• Music
• Drawing
• Poetry

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, an art therapy program enables people in rehab to express their thoughts and feelings, especially when they cannot use words to do so. This type of therapy also helps people with an underlying mental illness. Through art, you can show your thoughts and emotions, as well as explore and resolve problems you do not feel comfortable discussing.

For people in addiction treatment, creative therapy like this helps bring on recovery. It helps with healing and expressing your innermost thoughts and feelings as well as bringing out unspoken problems. This therapy helps victims of crime and abuse, too.

Types of Art Therapy

Types of therapy using art for healing include Gestalt methods, active imagination, and the third-hand approach. Gestalt methods use art as an introduction to deeper talks with your therapist. Active imagination methods use the artwork to let your mind roam for free association. This opens doors to the deeper understanding of your feelings.

The third-hand approach involves the therapist helping you create your art. You still control the overall creative process. However, the therapist acts as your tool in completing the work.

In rehab, you benefit from art in therapy because it helps you find new ways to deal with your addiction. You look more deeply into yourself and practice healthy coping skills through your art. In some ways, art lets you dig deeper when compared to talk therapy.

Art group therapy helps, too. Peers in group therapy use their art to help each other understand their struggles. You also gain an understanding of other people in the group at the same time.

Where You Find Therapies Using Art

Creative and experiential therapies using art take place in a licensed rehab center offering this type of counseling. The art helps you work through your emotions, experiences, and issues leading to your addiction and making it worse. You gain a safe place to talk about issues at the root of your problems. If you do not do well with talk therapy, art opens new doors for personal change and growth.

Restorations Health Care Group in Los Angeles offers creative therapy, such as art and music therapy. Programs of Restorations Health Care Group include:

• Supervised detox programs
• Inpatient addiction rehab
• Experiential therapy program
• Individual therapy program
• Group therapy program
• Family therapy program
• Dual diagnosis treatment

Using art, you gain new ground in your struggles with addiction. This type of therapy requires no artistic experience or talent. Anyone benefits from these therapies, especially when combined with other types of therapy.

If you or a loved one suffers addiction with or without a co-occurring mental illness, art can help you heal, too. Contact Restorations Health Care Group in Los Angeles at (877) 578-0708 for this help and other types of therapy you need for strong, lasting recovery.