What is the Difference Between EMDR and Art Therapy in Austin, TX?

Some people think that EMDR and art therapy may be quite comparable for mental health treatment.  But if you’re looking for healing from trauma, there are differences that need to be explored so choices can be made about which kind of treatment is the best for you.

One is a Modality and One is a Profession

For starters, EMDR, which stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is a therapeutic modality while art therapy in Austin, TX is a therapeutic profession!  Big difference.  A therapeutic modality is a specialized kind of treatment that anyone who’s a mental health professional can get training in.

A therapeutic profession, however, is a graduate-level career in the provision of mental health services.  Think of the difference between a psychiatrist and a doctor; all psychiatrists are doctors, but not all doctors are psychiatrists.

An EMDR Practitioner Isn’t Always the Same Thing as an Art Therapy Professional

All EMDR practitioners are members of a therapeutic profession (including art therapy in Austin, TX), but not all mental health professionals (including art therapists) are trained to provide EMDR.

Advertising Materials Will Indicate Who Provides What Services

You can receive EMDR from an art therapist, but you can also receive EMDR from a social worker or any other kind of mental health professional, as long as they’re trained in EMDR.

Similarly, you can receive EMDR from an art therapist in Austin, TX, but you can also receive a host of other services from an art therapist too—it depends on how they’ve been trained.  EMDR-trained therapists of any kind will likely indicate their training in their advertising materials.

Art Therapists Will Display Their Credentials

Art therapists will have their art therapy qualifications on display if they live in a jurisdiction that offers art therapy credentials.  Examples include the LPC-AT (licensed professional counselor-art therapist) in Texas and the ATR-BC (art therapist registered-board certified), which is recognized in the U.S. and some other countries.

EMDR is a Modality and Art Therapy in Austin, TX is a Profession

What IS EMDR?  What IS art therapy?  Well, let’s tackle EMDR first.  In short, it’s a modality (with a lot of research behind it) for enlisting the body in healing and resolving the negative thoughts that develop out of traumatic memories.

Although EMDR is now being used for other reasons in therapy, its primary focus has always been trauma treatment.  Art therapy, on the other hand, is not a method.  Like I said earlier, it’s a profession.

An Art Therapist in Austin, TX Can Get Training in EMDR

Different art therapists can practice in very different ways, while EMDR practitioners largely stay within a defined range of approaches that match the general EMDR protocol.  There is no general protocol in art therapy; again, how any one art therapist chooses to practice is based on the way they were trained.

All art therapists share an underlying foundation in similar coursework and other requirements in graduate school.  But after that things become more individualized as each art therapist moves forward in life and works with different populations in different settings and decides to engage in any further training needed to the work they most want to do; some art therapists choose to do training in EMDR.

Art Therapy in Austin, TX Is Used for the Treatment of a Broad Range of Issues

While EMDR is a modality, art therapy is a profession with a broad scope of targeted effectiveness, including trauma.  It has also been the subject of a lot of research.  The American Art Therapy Association defines art therapy as “a mental health profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship”.

Given art therapy’s broad applicability (you can find art therapy anywhere you’d find other mental health services), not all art therapy practitioners are highly skilled at treating trauma; they’ve chosen to focus on treating other things instead.

I Provide Art Therapy in Austin, TX for Anxiety and Depression

In my own 30+-year career I’ve worked in behavioral health, correctional, educational, medical, and social services settings.  That means I’ve seen a lot of things and addressed a lot of treatment issues, including trauma, but I would never say that trauma is one of my specialties.

Why?  Because I know there are colleagues who specifically focus on trauma treatment, and I can refer to them if someone wants to work with a trauma specialist.  My own training includes studying under the co-creators of a framework called the Expressive Therapies Continuum, which means I was trained to track a client’s nervous system functioning through their artmaking behavior, art products, and verbalizations about these.

Knowing a client’s pattern of integration vs. dis-integration within their nervous system helps this Austin, TX art therapist develop interventions that are specific for helping the client internally integrate, but I do this for all treatment issues rather only trauma.

Most Therapists and Art Therapists Are Trauma-informed

These days it’s hard to find a therapist who has not become trauma-informed in their delivery of services!  So while not all therapists or art therapists are trauma specialists, most mental health professionals are trauma-informed and can also refer someone to a trauma specialist if needed.

Clients have options for trauma treatment, whether they work with an art therapist in Austin, TX or someone else.

EMDR and Art Therapy Both Utilize Visual Perception

While EMDR and art therapy are not at all the same thing, I would like to point out some often-overlooked ways that they’re similar.  For one, both EMDR and art therapy are reliant upon visual perception as a pathway into a client’s nervous system for creating positive changes there.

EMDR often utilizes lateral (side-to-side) eye movements while a client recounts traumatic memories and experiences; this visual focus is thought to create integration that talking alone does not.  And it’s been noted that the eye movements that occur when coloring and shading during art therapy in Austiin, TX are very similar to the eye movements activated in EMDR.

The Eyes Play a Significant Role in Art Therapy

Visual perception is incredibly important in the art therapy process.  The visual cortex is linked to brain structures and neural networks that are essential for processing external data and creating an internal response.

Vision is not a passive entity during art therapy in Austin, TX; it contributes to the development of new ways to engage with the external world as clients literally create these new ways right before their eyes.

EMDR and Art Therapy Both Utilize Somatosensory Processing

EMDR and art therapy also share overlap in somatosensory processing.  What’s that?  Touch.  EMDR sometimes makes use of side-to-side finger tapping, where the client taps their own legs or else uses hand-held “tappers” that emit an electrical pulse to imitate tapping with one hand and then the other.

This makes use of a rhythmic, predictable activity for engaging many of the nerves in the fingertips and hands of the client.  Art therapy in Austin, TX engages these nerves too.  They are connected to the rest of the nervous system and feed data into it. 

The Hands Are Especially Important in Art Therapy

Art therapy relies upon somatosensory processing.  This should not come as a big surprise, as it’s very difficult to engage in artmaking without touching anything.  In art therapy, touch is broken down into tactile and haptic sensations—tactile refers to the surface qualities of a material, like texture and temperature, while haptic refers to the form of a material, like weight and size.

These aspects of touch are important for an art therapist in Austin, TX to consider and are useful for making decisions about what materials to use with what clients and for what reason.

EMDR is a Trauma-focused Modality, Art Therapy is a Mental Health Profession, and They Both Use the Eyes and Hands

That’s the basic overview of the differences—and similarities--between EMDR and art therapy!  There are other points of comparison, of course, but hopefully this article has helped you understand whether EMDR or art therapy is right for you.

Don’t forget that you can also get EMDR from an EMDR-trained art therapist in Austin, TX!

Get Art Therapy for Becoming Whole

Are you looking for art therapy to help you integrate parts of your life experience that don’t seem to fit together?  These things can cause anxiety and depression, and I offer online art therapy for anxiety as well as online art therapy for depression.

Let’s Talk About What Art Therapy in Austin, TX Can Do for You

Contact me for a free consultation and find out more about how I can support you in using your eyes and hands to become whole.  I offer services to adults in Texas, Indiana, and Arizona, and I would love to see if we’re a good match for the integrative journey you have in mind.

Learn how I work with others at my About page.