Expressive arts (including visual art, movement, music, writing, drama, and other creative processes) have been an integral part of life as a means for expression, connection and understanding. Engaging with art carries therapeutic benefits, reducing stress, anxiety, and depression, and promoting overall mental health.
Put simply, Art Therapy and Expressive Arts Therapy are mental health professions that use art to help people share and process feelings and memories that may otherwise be difficult to express.
Discovering, understanding and the releasing of these feelings can lay the foundations for enormous personal growth and emotional well-being. Art Therapy is not about being skilled at or learning to master the art forms used. The focus is on the process and experience, not the resulting work.
While Art Therapy focuses primarily on visual arts, Expressive Arts Therapy embraces a wider range of artistic expressions. Expressive arts therapists encourage clients to move fluidly between different artistic modalities, allowing for a more holistic exploration of their inner experiences. Both approaches help our beneficiaries access deeper levels of self-awareness and potential in solving their struggles.
USA Board Certified Registered Art Therapist and Marriage and Family Therapist Head and Head of Programmes Make It Better states:
“Incorporating expressive arts into everyday life enables people to express their emotions through artistic creation. Not only do artists activities such as writing, painting, music and dancing cultivate our temperament, but they also allow us to reveal our emotions and ideas through creative process, thus providing a platform for self-inspiration. Appreciating the artworks of others is also an opportunity to understand and explore (our inner worlds through non-verbal means”
Supports individuals dealing with anxiety, depression, PTSD, and other mental health conditions.
Aids in managing emotions, helping individuals develop healthier coping strategies.
Facilitates healing from past traumas by allowing safe exploration of difficult experiences.
Support recovery from physical disabilities by incorporating movement, body connection and creativity into therapy.
Encourages better awareness of self and relation to others interaction and collaboration in group settings that foster interpersonal skills.
Assists individuals navigating major life changes, such as loss, divorce, or career shifts as well as stagnation.
The Sovereign Art Foundation (SAF) has been running Make It Better (MIB), an expressive arts-led community outreach programme for children in Hong Kong, since 2013. The programme, which is designed to promote the wellbeing of children with special educational needs, is run by an expert team of registered Art and Expressive Arts Therapists and art facilitators who are experienced in working with young children. In addition, SAF has been funding arts-based therapeutic programmes for children internationally since 2003.
Click below to read about the international community arts programmes we support.
