To ask about art therapy

[Chocoloca]

Has anyone tried it? Was it helpful?

I had one session and was asked to make something specific and then had to discribe how I relate to it. I did not relate but had to force myself to speak and look for similarity. Unsure how this can be helpful or maybe I am being impatient. But every session is money paid from my pocket, so wanted to know from others if it helped.

My aibu is wanting to not continue.

Any therapy, and any art, has to work for you and if you are feeling ambivalent you might not be able to commit enough to see a benefit. Did your experience at the first session match with what was advertised? Was it 1 to 1, if not how did others seem to react. Maybe try one more session to see if anything improves?

What was it about the idea of art therapy that made you want to try it in the first place?

If you don't think you can get what you wanted from it, then obviously you don't have to go. But it might be useful to pin down what you do (or did) want from it. What expectations did you have, and why don't you feel the class met them? I don't think any kind of therapy is a quick fix and I wouldn't expect to have any big revelations after one session.

The exercise you've described sounds like a reasonably valuable exercise to me. You were asked to make something, which you say you didn't relate to - but by being 'forced to look for similarity', you are being encouraged to look a bit deeper within yourself and see things from different angles. Also, the very fact that you made it with your own hands means there's some kind of connection between you and the object itself. I might be totally wrong, because I don't know how art therapy is meant to work, but it does sound (to me) like the kind exercise I'd imagine art therapy to include.

I think that ultimately, therapy (of any kind) requires thought and effort on the part of the patient. Maybe art therapy just isn't for you, and that's fine - but any therapy is a) going to rely on you thinking and engaging and trusting the process and b) will not change you in a single session,

Agree with @KreedKafer. It needs to work for you, but you also need to make an effort when you're in there. I'm so tired when I come out of therapy (not art therapy) that I need to schedule very carefully for afterwards because I am 'working' very hard.

The one art therapist I know works mostly with children, and some people with dementia.

I went into art therapy because I like art and thought it would be an interesting way to do therapy. I have depression and it seems like my childhood cptsd has something to do with it. I thought creative therapy will be helpful with depression, and I would spending time doing something creative. But being asked to make an apple and asked later what are similarities between us made me feel I wasted my time. Maybe it's me.

I won't say it was different from what was advertised as they never got into nitty gritty. I thought I would be painting and talking naturally. But here I was to draw similarities between what I made and myself. I will give one more try. Maybe I am being impatient.

The issue may be that if you actually like drawing/painting/modelling, you're considering what you make as aesthetic products, and judging whether they 'work' as 'good' drawings etc, rather than looking at it as the product of a mind that might say something about that mind's processes?

I know I amused my therapist recently when she had me doing 'voo breathing' (where you make a sort of foghorn sound when breathing out a long breath) and I was getting cross with myself because I'm a (somewhat rusty) good singer, and was hearing it as a bad performance, not a vagus nerve exercise.

Art therapy has saved my life.

Was suicidal and self harming and dealing with complex trauma as well as severe treatment resistant depression and severe anxiety and panic attacks.

was an utter utter mess and almost died on multiple occasions through suicide attempts.

the words were trapped inside me but I couldn’t access them.

working with art therapy has changed my life.

my Experience was it was very non directive - painting / drawing / scribbling/ moulding clay etc that helped me to get in touch with feelings and emotions. Never told by them what to draw / paint - but we would discuss what I did make.

led me into journaling and started to draw (stickman no artistic merit) things that I couldn’t say.

gradually more and more words have come and been released and now I can verbalise as well as draw things.

utterly life saving for me and totally worth every single penny - did get some through nhs but now pay privately and it really has helped me to recover and cope with severe mh issues.