Visual expression has been used for healing throughout history, but art therapy did not emerge as a distinct profession until the 1940s. In the early 20th century, psychiatrists became interested in the artwork created by their patients with mental illness. At around the same time, educators were discovering that children's art expressions reflected developmental, emotional, and cognitive growth. By mid-century, hospitals, clinics, and rehabilitation centers increasingly began to include art therapy programs along with traditional "talk therapies," underscoring the recognition that the creative process of art making enhanced recovery, health, and wellness. As a result, the profession of art therapy grew into an effective and important method of communication, assessment, and treatment with children and adults in a variety of settings. Currently, the field of art therapy has gained attention in health-care facilities throughout the Canada and within psychiatry, psychology, counseling, education, and the arts.

Art Therapy uses the nonverbal language of art for personal growth, insight and transformation. It is a means of connecting what is inside us – our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions - with outer realities and life experiences. The purpose of Art Therapy is much the same as in any other psychotherapeutic modality: to improve or maintain mental health and emotional well-being. It is based on the belief that images can help us to understand who we are, to express feelings and ideas that words cannot and enhance life through self-expression and creativity.

Art therapy involves helping children and adults become self-aware and deal with emotional and psychological issues through a collaborative process, utilizing simple art materials such as tempra paint, oil pastels, chalk pastels, markers, and clay. In this process, the art therapist facilitates the client’s non-verbal and verbal expression and understanding of the thematic patterns emerging through the art, helping their clients to discover what underlying thoughts, feelings and significance are being communicated in the artwork . Through this process, clients will not only gain insight and judgment, but develop a better understanding of themselves and the way they relate to the people around them.

At some point in their lives, people may find themselves overwhelmed by the intensity of their emotions which are difficult to face either by themselves or with others. Art therapy offers an opportunity to explore these intense or painful thoughts and feelings in a supportive environment. Art Therapy can be an individual activity but can also be successfully used in group situations.

• Art Media


• Art Therapy if a form of treatment using simple art materials, including pens, pencils, pencil crayons, markers, crayons, chalk, clay, play-dough, plastercene, paper mache, paper etc. Clients are able to spontaneous express themselves in a non-judgmental atmosphere, allowing them to freely articulate repressed thoughts and feelings without the threat of repercussion.

• Sand Tray


• Sand tray therapy is a method of psychological or psychoanalytic play therapy which is used to assess the mental health and well-being of children and adults by analyzing how they express themselves through the manipulation of objects in small, tabletop sandboxes (sand-trays). Sand tray participants are asked to create a diorama (a story or miniature world) by arranging toy people, animals, cars, plants, etc. in the sandtray. The therapist evaluates the subject's choice and use of the objects to help the participant to recognize their deeper "symbolic" natures, and to draw various conclusions about their psychological health. Sand Tray is a non-invasive therapeutic method that works especially well with those individuals who are young or have trouble comprehending and talking about difficult issues, such as domestic abuse or child abuse, incest, or the death of a family member.

• Play Therapy


• Although many childhood upsets are healed without the intervention of therapy, play therapy offers children a natural, safe, and non intrusive method to hasten recovery from common distressing events as well as major traumas. Parents sometimes believe that seeking therapy for their child would indicate parental failure. Although some children have been traumatized by events within the control of parents, many youngsters can benefit from play therapy who experienced situations over which their parents had no control, or were compelled to initiate for the child's benefit, such as medical procedures. Additionally, many children who have experienced no trauma of which their parents are aware can dramatically enhance their self-esteem through play therapy. In any case, obtaining the benefits of play therapy for a child is an indication of deep love and concern rather than failure.