Gestalt Art Therapy: Unlocking the Healing Power of Creativity and Imagination
‘Art is an extension of the self and can be a meaningful and powerful way to express what words cannot say.’
Introduction
Art has been a part of human existence since earliest times. Human beings have sung and danced, created images and artifacts and engaged in arts with ritual and ceremony to celebrate the cycles of nature and invoke the gods to enhance the well-being of society. Modern culture art is influenced by 17th and 18th century European history, separating fine arts from craft traditions and culture. Today we have Fine Arts, music, dance, visual arts, drama poetry and the daily Arts of cooking gardening and making things. The Arts however defined has the potential to heal and transform experience.
Gestalt art therapy is an experiential therapeutic approach that combines principles from Gestalt therapy with art-making processes. Developed in the 1940s and 50s, Gestalt therapy is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on the present moment, with insights arising from the relationship between client and therapist. By integrating creative media into this therapeutic approach, Gestalt Art Therapy enhances self-expression, self-awareness, and emotional healing.
Core Concepts of Gestalt therapy are here and now focus, awareness, wholeness, experimentation and dialogue. Gestalt therapy emphasizes staying in the present moment. Using art in therapy helps clients externalize and explore their current thoughts, feelings, and experiences through creative expression. This process includes addressing intrusive thoughts, past memories, and future anxieties.
Self-awareness is central to therapy. Creating art allows individuals to become more aware of their internal states, behaviours, and patterns. Gestalt therapy views individuals as whole beings, interconnected with their environment. Art can reflect the complexity and different aspects of the self, including parts that a person may be reluctant to acknowledge. Doing art helps integrate these different aspects of the self. Therapy sessions are related to imagination and creativity, as emotions, deep feelings, memories, and fantasies are acted out on the inner stage of the mind. Art illuminates the inner stage, enhancing active imagination and allowing the client with the therapist to weave connections between the imaginary, symbolic, and real.
Gestalt therapy encourages experimentation to gain new insights. The experiment is a safe way for clients to explore how they live in their world and their present situation, opening up new information and possibilities for new ways of being. Using creative media is a form of experimentation where clients can explore new ways of seeing and understanding their experiences and imagining new possibilities for the future. Together the therapist and client hold an exploratory dialogue to uncover the client’s difficulties, needs and unique sense of meaning.
Creative media and art making process in therapy
In Gestalt art therapy, clients engage in various creative media processes, such as drawing, painting, working with clay, or collage. The choice of medium and the creative process are guided by the client’s needs and preferences. As the client works with creative media, the therapist invites the client to to focus on particular issues or encourages free expression to explore the client’s inner world.
Everyone has a unique way of expressing themselves through art. The materials they choose, the colours they use, and their approach to art-making are deeply personal. The therapist emphasizes the process of what happens as a person expresses themselves with art. It is a journey of discovery for both the client and the therapist.
Art is an integral part of therapy. Clients do not need to be artists to benefit from art in therapy. Art is a way to express what words cannot say. The process and emotional impact of creating art are what matter, as clients gain awareness, recall memories, imagine the future and explore their creations with their therapist. During therapy sessions, clients are invited to describe aspects of their stories with art opening new spaces for exploration for both the client and the therapist.
During a therapy session difficult and often painful situations are talked about. Using creative media helps clients feel safe by distracting them from unproductive worrying, helps them express complicated thoughts, feelings and ideas, and clarifying perceptions of situations, people and ideas. Doing art helps to bring the obvious into focus and can be supportive when confused, upset or indecisive. Doing art helps by abstracting essentials from surrounding confusion, and simplifying complexity, providing new ways to perceive and relate. Making art helps reconnect parts of the self to become balanced and rounded with the added benefit of the enjoyment of creativity: a source of vitality.
Conclusion
Gestalt art therapy is based on the core concepts of Gestalt therapy to help individuals explore and express their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. By focusing on the present moment and personal experience, this approach enhances self-awareness, emotional regulation, and personal growth. Art-making serves as a powerful tool for clients to access deeper layers of their experience, promoting healing and transformation. Through this creative process, individuals can recover their energy, experience their wholeness, and navigate their life challenges with renewed vitality and insight.
References
Mackewn, J. (1997). Developing Gestalt counselling. Sage, London: Sage Press.
Oaklander, V. (2007). Windows to Our Children. The Gestalt Journal Press: Maine.
Shakhova, O. & Mavinushkina, A. (2023) Artistic creativity as a resource in psychological support group of Kharkiv Institute of Gestalt Psychodrama during wartime. British Gestalt Journal 3 (2).
Zinker, J. (1978). Creative process in Gestalt therapy. Vintage Books: New York.
