Welcome to Bend
Art Therapy
Visit the studio in Bend, Oregon, where you can begin your Art Therapy Journey. Bend Art Therapy provides individual and group art therapy by a Licensed Certified Art Therapist.
Experiences can be hard to talk about. Feelings can be beyond words. Sometimes the complexity of a person's experience truly cannot be captured or processed verbally. While talk therapy can be extremely effective, art therapy can provide a safe, unique and powerful way to access and to process the human experience.
Bend Art Therapy offers individuals the chance to engage in the creative process and discover another way to tell a story, to share a feeling, to gain insight or to build new skills.
Our goal is to empower you to create a life you love.
Art Therapy
Art therapy is a mental health profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship. (American Art Therapy Association Definition.
Visit the American Art Therapy Association Website for more info. https://arttherapy.org/what-is-art-therapy/
Benefits of Art Therapy
Neither artistic talent nor proficiency with art materials is needed, just a willingness to engage. Many clients come to Art Therapy with art making already being a familiar coping strategy; And some come to Art Therapy with no relationship to art or art materials at all. Either way is okay. Different people gravitate toward pencil or paint or collage or clay – or a mix of all. Every individual is unique.
Through the therapeutic relationship, clients can begin a journey of self-discovery and emotional healing. Ultimately, the creative process can offer individuals what they need and can be a tool used to enable clients to reach their personal goals.
Art making can provide an outlet for expression, communication and release. It can be a meditative process or a process for reflection. For many, the process of creating can be both enjoyable and empowering. It can also uncover and explore pain.
The use of metaphor in art therapy can offer a way to explore and deeply process complex thoughts and feelings in a safe and effective way.
Sensory exploration of materials offers individuals a way to connect to their bodies as well as implicit memories. Individuals can process trauma, grief and loss through their art making; they can build self-awareness and self-esteem.
Both the art therapist and the artwork itself can provide a container for externalizing feelings, while clients can gain distance, discover insight, as well as a new perspective.
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