Like other forms of therapy, art is also a safer and healthier way to channel stress and other negative emotions into action, compared to destructive or harmful choices, Kaimal says. Art has been a form of communication and self-expression for thousands of years, but it only became a form of therapeutic treatment in the 1940s. The benefits of art therapy have been seen in people of all ages, as it helps to improve communication and concentration, as well as to reduce feelings of isolation. Art therapy has also been shown to increase self-esteem, confidence and self-awareness.
Art therapy is unique because it allows people to express their feelings and emotions without having to say a word. This can be useful for treating people who feel that they are not in touch with their emotions, or those who have been through a traumatic or painful event and have trouble talking about their experiences. Self-expressive art helps you find new depths in your thinking that you may not have realized existed. And you can apply this to many other areas of your life. That's what makes art such an important part of education.
Therefore, experiencing art is a rewarding activity, regardless of the emotional content of the artwork. This finding is supported by previous research showing that an artistic context increases the positive response to images with negative content (Gerger et al. Adopting a distanced perspective in the reception of works of art can produce a positive emotional state and pleasure, regardless of the emotional content of the work of art (Leder et al. In addition, it seems that art-specific emotions and utilitarian emotions found a common neural substrate in the brain network involved in emotion processing and reward.
Through my experience as an art therapist, I have discovered that painting is one of the best forms of art therapy because it is normally experienced from a sensory level. If you're obsessed with staying “safe” with art or worried about what others think your art should be, you'll end up not revealing much about yourself. One might wonder how the emotional experience caused by the appreciation of diverse forms of art allows people to feel better and learn quickly and effectively, and if the driving effect of art in these different fields forms the basis of a common cognitive or affective mechanism. There are many ways to define art therapy, but the simplest definition is: the application of visual art for therapeutic purposes.
