The Art of an Art Therapist

By Allison Harari

Art Therapy for Anxiety In Long Island, New York

As an Art Therapy student studying at NYU, we take a course titled “Art For Art Therapists,” where we learn to explore ourselves, our art process, and our artwork, to be better prepared to guide clients to do so in session.

Throughout the course, we have various Art Directives, and Prompts to guide us in art making and push ourselves to think in new ways. We learn to build our insight and understanding of artistic expression and psychological meaning. 

Learn Along With Me | Art Of An Art Therapist

I wanted to share a few of the art assignments that I completed during my first semester as an Art Therapy student along with some reflections about my process. 

During our first week, we had the assignment to “Draw a Sound” and “Draw a Taste”

This prompt was interesting to me, because “sounds” and “tastes” are not something physical that we can see, but rather a sensation, feeling, and sensory experience, which seems difficult to portray.  

Draw A Sound

I chose to draw the sound of Rain. One night while I was sitting in my room, I drew as I listened to the rain outside. I opened my window and tried to let the sound guide my drawing, rather than how I thought rain was supposed to look like.

I started with a pen, making diagonal lines as I heard the wind blow the rain in gusts. It then turned into little drops on the ground, and I drew small squiggles and lines as I heard the drops. The black horizontal tick marks represent cars speeding down the street, which interrupted the rain sound.

It was chaotic, with a lot of different noises, but also very calming to listen to. I then took out my water color paints, and did a wash over the pen with some blue, to feel like water and rain. 

At first it was difficult to draw something so abstract, without drawing the literal look of rain. Creating this while listening to the sound definitely helped, as I had something outside of just my mind and memory to spark the artwork.

Draw a Taste Directive

I then endeavored to draw a taste, and I thought of something Sour. I drew a tongue, with oil pastels bright red. Coming out of it, I painted bursts of color: red, orange, yellow, and green using watercolor!

When I tried to imagine the feeling of tasting something sour, this is what came to mind. A sour taste is “shocking” with bursts of flavor, that feels tingly. It's sort of exciting, and catches you off guard.

The lines and dots of color represent the random hits of sour taste that come in as you are eating something sour, as the taste is always changing. As you eat, the taste also gets more mild, which is why I used a lighter green surrounding. 

These art prompts began to force me to think about feelings and sensations differently, trying to portray them in images that would evoke a similar feeling.

This is something that is beneficial to art therapy, where images can be used in place of words. Bursts of color and texture can portray emotions, when they may be indescribable. The image doesn’t have to be accurate or even drawn in a technical way by a skilled artist! Abstract art can portray and evoke emotion, and have deep meaning beyond what words can access. 

This directive prompted me to see and feel things pictorially, showing me how powerful art could be.

I was able to represent my feelings and emotions through the art process, which is so essential to Art Therapy. 

Thanks for coming a long this journey with me, and I hope by seeing a small glimpse into my process it sparked a openness and curiosity for your own journey and how art can be a part of it!

If you’re looking to engage in Art Therapy or engage in an Art Process to relieve some anxiety, tension or nervousness, check out our Art Therapy options.

We offer Open Art Studio Groups as well as One on One Art Therapy Sessions for you!

Art therapy is an amazing way to work through social anxiety, trauma, unconscious fears or beliefs and process your emotions so you can feel really better.

At Integrative Psychotherapy, we have a team of art therapists in Long Island and New York who are here to support you!

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