Art Therapy

Art therapy is an integrative mental health and human services profession that supports individuals, families, and communities through creative processes and active art-making. Unlike an art class, the emphasis isn't on producing a polished piece. It's on the process of creating, which can support healing, growth, self-awareness, and emotional, mental, and even spiritual wellbeing.

A qualified, registered art therapist draws on psychotherapeutic theory and technique to guide you through this process, within a safe, confidential, and professional therapeutic relationship. No artistic skill or experience is needed. Art therapy is not about being "good" at art. Sessions might involve drawing, painting, clay, collage, creative writing, movement, or music, and can take place in a therapy room or outdoors in nature, depending on what suits you.

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How Art Therapy Can Help

  • Foster a sense of safety and a stronger sense of self

  • Give voice to experiences and feelings not easily expressed with words

  • Grow self-awareness, self-esteem, and self-acceptance

  • Promote creativity, change, and personal growth

  • Navigate identity shifts and life transitions

  • Cultivate emotional resilience and support emotional regulation

  • Build mindfulness and grounding skills

  • Help manage stress and calm the nervous system

  • Support young people at risk of suicidal ideation or self-injury

  • Ease symptoms of trauma and PTSD

  • Build social, cognitive, and emotional skills in neurodivergent children

  • Lift quality of life and reduce anxiety and pain for children and adolescents living with chronic illness

  • Reduce depressive symptoms in both adults and young people

  • Support cognitive function and help slow cognitive decline in older adults

  • Reduce loneliness and support broader psychological wellbeing across the lifespan

Visit Art Room Therapy Blog for more information.

Main Theoretical Approaches

Art therapists draw on a blend of psychotherapeutic frameworks, often tailored to the individual:

  • Psychodynamic (Margaret Naumburg and Edith Kramer) — using art as a form of symbolic communication and a way to access unconscious material

  • Person-centred (Carl Rogers) — prioritising empathy, unconditional positive regard, and the client's own creative process as inherently healing

  • Trauma-informed and neuroscience-informed — informed by an understanding of how trauma is stored non-verbally in the body and nervous system, using art-making to help regulate arousal and build a felt sense of safety

  • Attachment-based — particularly relevant in dyadic (parent-child) art therapy, supporting co-regulation and relational repair

  • Mindfulness-based — using the sensory, present-moment nature of art-making to build grounding and distress tolerance

  • Transpersonal — drawing on spirituality, symbolism, and a sense of connection beyond the individual self, supporting clients exploring meaning, purpose, or spiritual dimensions of their healingMost art therapists integrate several of these approaches, adapting them to what each client needs

Who Tends to Benefit Most?

Art therapy can support almost anyone, but tends to be especially helpful for:

  • Children and young people, particularly those who find it hard to articulate feelings verbally

  • Neurodivergent individuals, including autism, ADHD, or learning and language differences

  • Adults navigating anxiety, depression, grief, low self-esteem, or burnout

  • Trauma survivors, where verbal recall of events can be distressing or inaccessible

  • Parents and children together (dyadic work), to strengthen attachment and repair relational rupture

  • People experiencing chronic illness, disability, or pain

  • Older adults, including those experiencing mild cognitive decline or dementia

  • People going through major life transitions such as entering adulthood, becoming a parent, or grief and loss

  • Professionals and carers experiencing vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, or burnout

  • People who feel "talked out" from previous talk-therapy experiences, or who find verbal therapy overwhelming or inaccessible

What to Expect

You don't need any artistic ability to benefit from art therapy. Many clients say this is what makes it feel more accessible than they expected. Sessions are collaborative: your therapist will never interpret your artwork for you, but will support you to explore what it means to you. Confidentiality, consent, and pacing are prioritised throughout, and you're always in control of what you create and share.

We believe you are the expert in your own life, so sessions can be led by you (non-directive) or guided more closely by your therapist (directive), depending on what feels right. Art therapy can be accessed as a standalone approach or integrated with talk-based counselling, in individual, couple/dyadic, family, or group formats.

Art supplies are provided for in-person sessions. For online sessions, you'll be asked to have some art supplies of your own choice on hand.

FAQs

  • Art Therapy uses creative processes such as art making as a tool to reach therapeutic goals. Art Therapy is not focused on the product of the art work, it focuses on the process of art making which facilitates healing, growth, self-awareness, storytelling and enhances mental, spiritual and emotional wellbeing.

  • Art Therapy does not require any artistic experience or skill. People who come with no artistic experience and partake in Art Therapy typically feel calm, insightful and freeing. It is the art making process which facilitates healing, not the final product.

  • Research has shown that adults can also benefit from Art Therapy. You don’t need any art experience to benefit from expressive therapeutic arts, and sessions will always be customized to match the needs and interests of the individual or group. This means it can be used for all ages.

  • Generally, the Art Therapist will typically observe silently and will engage with you in different ways, depending on your preference and comfort. Sometimes the Art Therapist may create art alongside you, or engage with you in conversation during some or all of the time. If the participants prefer, some light music might be used to help create a comfortable, relaxed and creative atmosphere.

  • After a decade of inclusion, Art Therapy has recently been removed from being recognised as an evidence based therapy support. This decision is devastating for all NDIA community. Fortunately, Michelle is a qualified Social Worker who has a membership with the AASW. NDIS participants can still access therapeutic support from Michelle via Social Worker profession (under Capacity Building - Improved Daily Living) . Cost of each session is in line with the NDIS price guide (1 hour $193.99 GST free).

  • We offer both in-person (Geelong) and online (Zoom) sessions. We see the power of face to face connection, however we also acknowledge the convenience for online sessions.

  • A cancelled appointment is considered late when it’s within 48 hours of your scheduled appointment time, or not attended at all. The first cancellation within 48 hours of your scheduled appointment will not be subject to a late cancellation fee. Subsequent late cancellation within 48 hours of your scheduled appointment will incur 100% of your appointment cost.

  • In person and online private Art Therapy sessions cost $220. In person sessions include a range of art materials (pencils, pastels, paper, watercolour, acrylic paint, collage embellishments etc). If you are a student or are experiencing financial difficulties but want to access art therapy, please contact Michelle directly to discuss cost options.

  • Typically 50 minutes. Session length and option for breaks can be discussed with Michelle during initial session.

Michelle Joseph

Email michelle@artroomtherapy.com.au

Free 15 minute chat available Monday - Saturday

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