What is art therapy?

The artistic process expresses internal as well as external experiences. This is the often so called “actualisation process”. Symbols that include deliberate and unaware contents develop during this process. In the art-therapeutic examination these can be made deliberate and be acquired again. (see Bulfon)

What doe these words mean? Artistic figures are something universal; they appear in all cultures: even groups with a little material possession decorate their objects, change their personal appearance, find poetic expressions for certain occasions, play music, sing and dance.

These needs result from the fact, that art is a human behaviour, our evolutional-historical inheritance.

Picture 2: Indian Hut in the Saxman Totem Park, Ketchikan, Alaska, USA.

                                                                                                                            Picture 1: Slovakian Dancers

There are three indicators that exist to develop specific behaviour:

1) Art leaves a pleasant sensation that both, producer and viewer enjoy.

2) People spend a lot of time and energy for a certain activity, because of pleasure.

3) Finally, every culture has its own kind of art. Even modern cognitive science speaks about the positive effect that art has on our brain.

Picture 3: Painting – adult                     Picture 4: Painting - child

Primarily, art is considered as freedom. The artist Joseph Beuys defined:

Art = Person = Creativity = Freedom.

And like Beuys; Klara Helg (art therapist) is of the opinion that every person is in some ways creative.

Through the usage of different colours art therapy makes it for children as well as adults possible to become aware of their inner feelings.

Earlier more children had the possibility to explore and develop their creativity in the nature; through playing with mud, earth, stones, grass and blossoms.

Nowadays this has mostly changed; in many flats kids don’t have that much space.

However children need to build up their creativity.

Everybody gathers bad experiences; some are able to cope better with them than others. In fact on the one hand sometimes it is important to ignore strokes of fate in order to survive, but on the other hand ignored situation have a constantly bad effect on the person, even if the event happened years ago.

Many ignored issues have their beginning in the early childhood, but as an adult, people aren’t aware of them any more.

Art makes it possible to reconsider these unaware situations, thus to help to solve deep rooted problems that have a negative effect on the present life of the patient.