Why talking isn’t the only path to healing ㅡ An Arts Therapy Perspective.
It can be easy to dismiss artmaking as separate from healing, and try to process distressful experiences through just words.
I, too, believed that talking things through, analysing, and verbalising emotions was the best way to understand what was happening inside. And often, it did feel cathartic and helped release what was bottled up.
But sometimes, confronting one’s deepest feelings through words can be frightening, leading them to be repressed subconsciously or never daring to speak them aloud. At other times, it can simply be too confusing trying to articulate the layers of emotions shifting moment to moment.
Some emotions sit so deep in one’s body that trying to put them into words feels like trying to catch mist with your hands.
It can feel frustrating, like being locked out of one’s own experience. But creative expression through art, movement and imagery can sometimes provide another way in. A way that feels gentler, playful, and insightful. This is the essence of arts therapy—the healing potential of creativity when words fall short.
when words fall short
I’ve witnessed this not only in myself, but in others. Many of my clients came to arts therapy feeling stuck. Often, they responded to questions about their thoughts and feelings with a hesitant and repeated:
“I don’t know…”
It wasn’t that they weren’t trying. Some things can feel too difficult or unsafe to name. And when words aren’t accessible, it can feel like one is failing at therapy, as if they are not trying hard enough or that their emotions aren’t valid because they can’t articulate them. But that simply isn’t true.
In Arts Therapy, the materials and artworks can hold emotions and do the talking for us. There’s something powerful in the creative process—painting, drawing, moving, or even just cutting, shaping, or ripping something with your hands. It’s not about making ‘good’ or ‘pretty’ art. It’s about allowing something inside to take form in a way that feels true to oneself and unforced.
expression beyond words
I’ve seen people find clarity in the colours they choose, the shapes they create, or the movements they make. Sometimes they don’t realise what they are holding until they see it reflected back through their art. Other times, feeling a shift in the body while creating can be just as powerful.
Allowing oneself to explore the dark moments through creativity can be transformative. The less one tries to explain everything, the more it becomes clear that healing often happens in the not-knowing. Life and emotions rarely make perfect sense. But when things are allowed to unfold creatively, it often becomes easier to see experiences in a new light.
I’ve witnessed these shifts in my work too. Moments when someone picks up a paintbrush, starts moving, or sinks their hands into a lump of clay, and something clicks. They may not have words for it, but something shifts. Sometimes there are tears. Sometimes laughter. Sometimes just a long, deep sigh, as if their body is saying, Yes. This is it.
a different way to heal
There is nothing wrong with not being able to find the words. Healing is rarely linear or logical. Words are processed from our heads, but emotions often reside within our bodies and nervous systems.
So when healing begins there, it can look messy, colourful, raw and at times a little ‘ugly’. It might look like scribbles on a page, or a silly, spontaneous dance in your living room. And that can be just as powerful and transformative as sitting across from someone and talking things out.
Stepping into one’s creativity can surely feel intimidating at times. I struggled too, especially when perfectionism and my inner critic took the wheel. But just like talk therapy isn’t about being good at public speaking, Arts Therapy isn’t about being good at art. It’s about connecting with yourself in a way that feels safe and natural.
Everyone’s healing process is different. And if talk therapy hasn’t quite landed for you, maybe it’s time to try something new. Something that taps into one’s creativity that is innate in all of us, and let it bring to light what needs healing.
If this resonates, and you're curious about how Arts Therapy might support you, I’d love to chat. I offer a complimentary discovery call, free of charge, which you can book here. Healing can start in the smallest of ways—a brushstroke, a gesture, or a moment of creative play held with gentleness and curiosity.
