What is Somatic Art Therapy?

When I first mention Art Therapy and Somatic Healing the main response I get is “wow, that’s so great. But what does that look like?”

So let’s get into it…

What is somatic art therapy?

Let’s start by first defining the two modalities, art therapy and somatic healing.

Art therapy is the use of art-making and the creative process as a way to help a client explore, understand and cope with varying issues. Art therapy can help increase self-esteem, emotional awareness and resilience, enhance coping skills, socialization and so much more. Engaging in Art Therapy can look so different depending on both the therapist (how they work and their general framework) as well as the presenting issues that clients may be looking to address.

Somatic healing involves the use and principles of mindfulness in order to better understand and increase awareness of the “soma,” otherwise known as, the body. Engaging in Somatic Healing can help increase the mind-body connection, help individuals heal from the inside out and better understand the bodies various experiences.

So why combine the two?

When in grad school for art therapy, I found that engaging in the process of art making really helped individuals explore themselves in a different and possibly unconventional way. For myself personally, art-making was a form of self-expression from a young age and can help convey so much more than words, because sometimes words just aren’t enough. As I began to delve deeper into the work, I started to learn more about using the body as a tool to listen to, understand and cope with our various experiences. That’s when I began to learn more about Somatic Experiencing and I felt my world opened up. I have found that using the two together helps to primarily explain what we feel in ways that the subconscious and, all that we have been holding onto, is able to understand. In other words, it can help give language to our emotions and our experiences.

Now for the next question I often get….What does a session look like?

I wish there was an easy way to explain it but each session truly looks different from another. This is due to many different factors: who the client is, what the presenting issue is and how the therapist works. The general framework involves the client coming into the session with a presenting issue that has either happened recently or in the past. From there, the client may start to talk about and explain what it is that is happening or has happened (this is where we often get stuck-in the story and trying to verbalize our experiences). Once I have a better understanding of the situation or the experience, I may have the client start to engage in a mindfulness practice (led by me) as they start to come into their body and notice the sensations. For some clients this may take a couple of sessions as so many of us have never spent the time with our bodies and even less listening to all of the wisdom it has. Once we are better able to identify the experience, I may then have the client engage in art-making; this is especially helpful when feeling stuck, to represent the experience, the sensations or maybe even think of a solution. This is a process that may also take some time. These processes may also be done interchangeably or independently (see what I mean when I say its hard to explain) depending on the client, the day or the situation. At the end of the session there will usually be some processing of the experience.

Some times the somatic art therapy is a place to also identify and learn different body or art based tools that clients can continue to implement on their own. These are tools that you may practice in sessions, such as tools to help you manage your anxiety or even triggers from past or current trauma.

All of this is done in a safe and supportive environment, lead by the therapist (me in this case) who is able to help support the client where feelings may seem overwhelming or the sensation of being “stuck” may come up as well.

Similar to the reason why I use somatic art therapy as a primary modality, sometimes words aren’t enough and can’t be used to explain an experience. If you’re feeling curious about somatic art therapy click here to schedule a FREE consultation call with me or feel free to email me any questions you may have.

You can also learn more about art therapy here or somatic experiencing here.