Coloring during therapy is a safe space for people to relieve themselves from a painful past. The coloring engages a different part of the human brain that gives them access to trauma in a different way. It allows the person to process the trauma in a completely different way, as well. This allows the person to talk about whatever caused them the PTSD without going through a fit of panic. There is more to art therapy than just coloring. There is also more to art therapy than sitting in front of a therapist. You can conduct the art therapy on yourself, or you can visit a professional, whichever way works best for you. Just like talk therapy, art therapy has numerous healing potential when it is done correctly. For a lot of people turning to art has allowed them to relieve a lot of tension that comes back to haunt them.
Similar is the case of Peter Clossick. Born in 1948, Clossick grew up in post-war London, with bomb-sites still scattered and rationing still going on, where he saw the people in his surroundings constantly tormented by the images of war that they had to live through. Growing up during a 1950s Britain the post-war mentality was very prevalent. This impacted his mind in a way that he became closer to existential theory, connecting everyday experience with questions about meaning and value of life, which he now projects onto his paintings and uses as a creative source. Before becoming a professional artist, Clossick was a shoe designer for John Hlustik Design. He would work as a shoe designer up until 1974 when he enrolled in Camberwell School of Arts.
Conducting therapy through art uses several different creative mediums like drawing, painting, coloring, and sculpture. For those wanting to relieve tension and anxiety, art provides a different path. It helps process all the terrible things that have happened to you or are going on around you in a different way. For humans, art provides an outlet to express feelings where words clearly fail. It helps the person identify their coping strategies and the strengths that they can work with to calm their anxiety and begin the journey of healing. When you have a set of colors, even if abstract, laid out onto the blank canvas, it becomes easier to make sense of what you are feeling. It allows you to come to terms with what you might have been suppressing for a long while, and find ways to make peace with it. When it comes to doing art, it is like discovering a different part of you every single time, even mindless doodling can help you think through a problem.
Another reason why relieving your feelings through creativity will be that not everyone can understand what those feelings are. When you talk, people are able to decipher what you are feeling, and sometimes you don’t want that to be known. People who are much more private with their stress can turn to art for much-needed relief. Clossick finds he can re-live through the ordinariness of things when drawing and painting, moments of stressful anxiety does not necessarily provide answers to big questions, and finding creative solutions is a release.
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