Art Therapy for Kids

In tough moments with your child, does it feel like words aren’t working?

When children are struggling, they often don’t know how to identify and communicate exactly what’s happening. Asking them what’s wrong can lead to frustration, a complete shut down, or a new eruption of big feelings.

Instead, art therapy acknowledges that verbal language is only one form of communication, and it’s not the most natural one for children.

Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy that uses the creative process to help kids express themselves, share their thoughts and feelings, and practice their problem solving abilities.

Since creative play is how children innately work through challenges, art therapy naturally fits with a strengths-based, child-centered way of working. It takes the pressure off of talking, and often helps kids to feel comfortable quickly.

What happens in an art therapy session?

Art therapy sessions are your child’s safe confidential space for their thoughts and feelings. I provide structure by offering specific invitations for your child to express, explore, and experiment.

Depending on your child’s interests and our specific goals, I may offer traditional art making opportunities using pencil crayons, markers and paint; we may build something using fabric bits, recycled materials and a hot glue gun; or we might play with puppets and plastic animals as a way to explore their feelings.

There’s no right or wrong way to make art during art therapy, and kids don’t have to be “good” at art to use the art materials during their session.

Kids are in charge of what they make, what it means, and what they want to say about it. I will give your child ideas and guide them about how we can use art to help us work on our goals. Sometimes the art process itself will help us with this. Other times we may use the art materials to build coping tools they can take home with them and use beyond the sessions.

Your child is always free to accept my invitation or suggest a new direction. This allows your child to experience a sense of control in a safe and appropriate way. Together we co-create what happens in the session. Through the process of trying things, working through creative challenges, and reflecting on the experience, the “work” of art therapy happens.

Each art therapy session provides an opportunity for your child to express themselves, learn tools for sharing thoughts and feelings, and tap into their problem solving abilities. They practice new skills that they can use beyond the art room.

To learn more about how art therapy works, check out these resources.

I’m warm, soft-spoken, playful, and consistent.

I believe in your child’s inherent awesomeness, and I will share it with them every chance I get. Often, children feel good about themselves and their accomplishments when leaving a session. The acceptance they experience in the art room, paired with the gentle encouragement to try again, to solve artistic problems, and to trust their abilities, contrasts the experience they may be having outside of the therapy room where things aren’t going so well.

I’ve found that when children are given the opportunity to experience acceptance, enjoyment, and encouragement without fear of failure or negative consequences, it becomes a powerful motivator for them to find their own solutions to their problems.

I believe that your child is creative and resourceful. They have what it takes to overcome difficulties. I hope to provide a safe space where they can discover this for themselves.

My approach

 FAQs

  • No! Self-expression through creativity is a lifelong opportunity. Children often connect well with art therapy because their natural forms of expression and self reflection are through art and play. Although I only provide sessions for children, art therapy can be a great fit for teens and adults too. You can explore the Canadian Art Therapy Association’s directory to find art therapists who work with all ages.

  • Each art therapy session is 50 minutes long.

  • The number of sessions depends on your goals for therapy and your child’s unique needs. In our first meeting we will discuss this further and come up with a plan together.

  • Our work happens in the context of an ongoing therapeutic relationship, so I do not provide one-time sessions. Each client is assigned a regular session time (eg. every other Tuesday at 2pm), and we book ongoing sessions at a pre-determined frequency. Most clients attend weekly or bi-weekly sessions.