Teenagers have to deal with academic stress, extracurricular activities, problems with their social lives, and expectations from both their parents and teachers. Because of all this, 20 percent of teenagers suffer from at least one mental health disorder.
Because some teenagers are stressed about their lives, seeking help from therapy may be beneficial. One type of therapy is art therapy in which art therapists guide clients to create artwork to express their feelings, reduce their stress, and understand themselves better. Indeed, art therapy improves teenagers’ mental health.
Here are four reasons why teenagers need art therapy:
Art therapy helps teens to mitigate stress
Art therapy reduces stress because both creating and looking at art is relaxing. Studies show that creating art stimulates the release of dopamine and delights people, and an increased level of happiness is also conducive for battling anxiety and depression.
Because art helps people to relax, it can help to prevent teenagers from becoming overwhelmed by schoolwork. Reduced levels of stress also enable teenagers to improve their moods and physical health. As such, teenagers become less frustrated and more patient. They also have an easier time focusing, making rational decisions, and absorbing information when learning.
Improves self-recognition and self-esteem
In art therapy, therapists encourage teenagers to create art in order to stimulate self-recognition and self-esteem. Teens learn to accept their weaknesses and negative feelings and also learn to appreciate their own strengths, show kindness to themselves, and that nobody is perfect.
Moreover, because art therapy helps teenagers to value their strengths, they become better at dealing with pressure. They become more self-determined in meeting personal goals. They also learn to praise themselves for their strengths and their ability to overcome weaknesses. In this way teens develop a positive sense of self.
I have been in art therapy for twelve and a half years, and one project I did was to create a piece about my struggle with calculus. I drew myself on a long hike to symbolize my setbacks. Through art, I realized that it was okay to feel troubled when dealing with challenges. Also, I realized I was grateful because I have taken correct steps, such as asking questions when I did not understand something. Because my art helped me to gain some perspective on my struggle in math, I gained the will to push through.
Strengthens resilience
Art is a response to people’s difficulties. People often have a hard time making decisions, which makes it harder to make difficult choices. However, creating art is a great metaphor for dealing with problems in life.
In art, every stroke is another step of a challenge. Creating art requires patience and perseverance. Therefore, art shapes teenagers’ resilience for facing challenges. When teenagers finish a piece of art, they feel a sense of pride. The process of creating art allows teens to identify their challenges and take steps to overcome them.
Trains creative thinking and communication skills
Because there is no wrong way of expressing feelings through art, art trains teenagers to apply creative thinking to express themselves. The white canvas lets teenagers present their thoughts freely.
Moreover, art therapists encourage teenagers to interpret the work of others as well. Interpretations may vary, but teenagers and their art therapists can have discussions and exchange ideas about a piece of art. This strengthens analytical and communication skills, giving teenagers the tools to think critically and speak up at school.
For example, one time my friends, my therapist, and I read a picture book called The Cat that Lived a Million Times. It is about a cat who has nine lives. Each time he dies, he is reborn to owners he dislikes. This keeps happening until he finds his true love. Through our discussions, I learned that the book meant something different to each of us, but all of us eventually had an important takeaway: loving yourself is a requirement for loving others.
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In short, art therapy is a valuable tool for teenagers to deal with their stress, get to know themselves better, build perseverance, and cultivate creative thinking. Art therapists also empower teenagers to think positively about themselves. Therefore, many teenagers could benefit from art therapy.
Art is an universal language. It expresses different layers of human nature and portrays our wonderful world.
Everything existing in the universe is beauty, let’s feel it and express it via an artistic way.
It is good to learn that the author appreciates the value of art therapy, which truly heps lots of teenagers.