Expressive Arts Therapy

What makes the Expressive Arts Approach so successful is its ability to positively influence how children and youth interact, move, contribute, and collaborate with their peers and adults.

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By using a guided process, the Expressive Arts can open the door to better understand our feelings, responses, and knowledge of ourselves and the world we live in. The therapist provides a safe, non-judgemental environment with art materials and emphasizes the process and journey of making images that offer opportunities for introspection.

 

Through a series of progressive sessions, the expressive arts are able to support constant internal and external feedback which helps promote resilience, curiosity, and problem-solving, as well as social development by providing a  safe place without judgment from peers, parents, or the therapist

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Through Expressive Arts activities, youth are encouraged to use tools to develop and express their unique personality in a safe, nurturing environment. Through our program, self-confidence can be developed and nurtured through a combination of a trusted community, mastery of skills, and an open opportunity to express ideas.

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Here at Room to Grow, youth’s unique personalities are celebrated collectively and given room to grow. 

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 20 Ways Expressive Arts are Beneficial

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• Enables ways to express ideas and responses without words

• Develops problem-solving ability

• Learning through analogy

• Develops expressive skills

• Helps culturally diverse students overcome barriers to school success

• Opportunity for risks without failure

• Educates the imagination

• Awakens a passion for learning

• Builds responsibility for one's own learning

• Improves self-awareness, self-esteem and helps in regulating behaviors

• Helps express and release feelings they may not know how to let go of

• Positively affects function, mood, cognition, and behavior

• A safe outlet for negative emotions through an enjoyable activity

• Opportunity to appreciate differences between people and accept each individual's perceptions

• The process of creating requires deep thinking skills that help build and strengthen the brain's neural connections

• Helps the child develop and better understand their feelings

• Physical development by improving motor skills, control, and muscle development

• Helps the child work through confusions, anxieties, and conflicts

• Roleplay adaptive behaviors

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