How Art Therapy in Austin, TX Gets Inside Your Brain to Work Its Magic

If you were to observe an art therapy session, you would see only what’s available to the naked eye.  Chances are you’d completely miss the magic, instead zeroing in on verbal exchanges and what might seem like a random set of recommendations from the art therapist—requests for the client to engage with certain art materials or in certain art methods.

Then you’d see more verbal exchanges at some point, and you’d notice that the client was either emotionally moved or intellectually stimulated by the whole experience.  What happened?  What did you miss?

Most People Can’t Pick Up on the Magic of Austin, TX Art Therapy Just by Observing a Session

Even talk therapists who ask their clients to engage in artmaking would miss the magic while watching a real art therapy session facilitated by a real Austin, TX art therapist.  So don’t feel bad!  It’s all in the art therapist’s education and training; just like magicians study their craft and seek feedback from the masters, so it is with art therapists.

You Can’t See What’s Happening Inside a Client’s Nervous System in Austin, TX Art Therapy

What you don’t see, aside from the rationale for the art therapist’s decisions that are based on the data provided by a client’s artmaking process/art products/verbal responses, is the physical information that’s being processed by the client’s eyes and hands.  Yup—art therapy is one of psychotherapy’s original embodied and experiential professions.

Different Materials and Methods Evoke Different Responses

The star of the art therapy show is not what you can see with your naked eye, it’s what’s happening inside the client’s nervous system.  This is why materials and methods are not used randomly in art therapy.

Due to their physical properties, some materials evoke feelings while others evoke thoughts.  It’s the same with methods—some are good for promoting an emotional response and others are good for promoting an intellectual response, depending on whether the method engages the imagination (default) neural network or the executive neural network.  The art therapist is making materials and methods recommendations that are contingent upon on what the client’s needs are, what the client’s goals are, and what needs to be done to bridge the gap between the two.

Visual Perception and Somatosensory Processing Are Enlisted in Austin, TX Art Therapy

If you want to be technical about things, art therapy makes good on visual perception and somatosensory processing.  Visual perception is the ability to rely upon color and various lighting conditions to make sense of information in one’s surroundings—we also call this sight.  Somatosensory processing is the part of the nervous system responsible for the detection of body position, pain, temperature, and touch.

Austin, TX Art Therapy Uses the Client’s Eyes and Hands to Get into the Brain

What does the creating in Austin art therapy?  The client’s whole brain.  Using the client’s eyes and hands as the pathways into the brain, the magic of creating internal shifts in art therapy relies upon visual perception and somatosensory processing.

The art therapist’s recommendations about materials and methods are ultimately tied to these aspects of nonverbal functioning.  This is why art therapy assessment and treatment definitely take specific education and supervision to master.

The Physical Components of Mental Health Troubles Can Be Transformed Through Austin, TX Art Therapy

So the next time you hear about art therapy, remember that it’s not about “activities”, “directives”, or “techniques” designed to either distract someone from their woes or get them to say more words about their woes.  Instead, there really is a magic show going on.  Anxiety, depression, stress, trauma, grief, and burnout all have physical components that can be accessed, soothed, and restored through working with the eyes and hands in art therapy.

Art Therapy in Austin, TX Uses Noninvasive Means to Work Its Healing Magic

I like to tell people that art therapy doesn’t really have anything to do with art—artmaking with the guidance and support of an Austin, TX art therapist is just the gateway to creating optimal shifts in the nervous system.  That I have the knowledge and skills to be prescriptive, rather than random, about art materials and methods is a testament to my graduate training in art therapy.  The clients I see benefit from my ability to use noninvasive means for getting inside their brains and helping them work their own healing magic.                 

Do You Need a Complimentary Austin, TX Art Therapy Consultation?

Are you ready to learn how online art therapy can transform your current story into a happily ever after? Contact me for a complimentary 15-minute phone consultation. We’ll explore what’s going on as well as the life you’d like to create for yourself, and we’ll figure out how art therapy with me can help you transform your vision into reality.

Still need a little more info about how all this works? See my About page for an idea of how I support others who are on a mission to break free from the darkness of anxiety, depression, and stress so they can spread their wings and live in the light again. Isn’t it about time for you to burn bright?