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Art Therapy

HopeWay's art therapy in Charlotte, NC incorporates creativity and the healing power of art as an integral tool for healing and recovery.

HopeWay understands that creativity has scientifically proven benefits and creating art is therapeutic, and with a registered art therapist to guide the creative process, the journey towards healing, reconciliation, and hope becomes tangible and real.

What is Art Therapy?

Art therapy allows for expression of feelings and thoughts that are often without words. Trauma, grief and other types of life events are sometimes experienced in a way that is greater than our capacity to describe them verbally. When that happens, we employ the old adage that “a picture paints a thousand words,” because when words fail, art speaks. 

 

Art Therapy Benefits

"Art making, or the creative process, is an intense focus of the mind (mindfulness) in which marks are made in the present moment. The mind may feel like it wanders when making art, but really, it adheres itself to the present moment. Marks can only be made in the here and now. When someone holds a paint brush or a piece of clay, there is a tactile experience that brings an awareness to the body, and thus to the present moment. To choose a color and make a mark are matters of the mind. The mind must be present in order for the body to make a mark. When the mind and the body come together, one loses track of time, hunger, worry, and sadness and enters into what is referred to a “state of flow”. Time is deconstructed. There is not past. There is not future. There is only now, this moment, and in THIS moment, sadness ameliorates, anxieties calm, emotions are released and then made visible, tangible, touchable and understandable.

It is through this expression that clients begin to create a narrative, revise their world view, gain insight and awareness, and work to transcend adversity.  It is through color, lines, shapes, materials and processes that the path of illness changes into a path of healing, hope, and understanding."

- Marianne, Art Therapist

 

Art Therapy Testimonials

"Marianne, the art therapist, is fantastic at meeting clients where they are, and helping clients understand each other through art." - Jessica

"Marianne is fantastic at using art as an additional form of treatment, helping me self evaluate each Monday with self portraits. She integrates mindfulness well, and really makes art accessible, meeting people wherever their comfort level is." - Anthony

 

Drawing Your Breath