The most common thing people say when they first hear about art therapy is: "I'm not artistic." This is understandable — and it entirely misses the point.
Art therapy is not an art class. It is not about skill, aesthetic quality or producing anything that would hang on a wall. It is a form of psychotherapy that uses creative expression as its primary medium — and the reason it works has nothing to do with whether you can draw.
What actually happens in art therapy
A typical art therapy session involves working with materials — paint, pastels, collage, clay, drawing — in the presence of a trained therapist. The therapist does not evaluate the work. They hold space for whatever emerges, and they pay attention to the process as much as the product.
What tends to emerge is revealing. The way someone holds a brush. The colours they avoid. The moment they stop and stare at what they have made. The things they say when they describe an image to someone else.
"The image knows things the conscious mind does not yet have language for."
This is not mysticism. It reflects something neurological: the brain processes emotion and imagery through different pathways than language. For some experiences — particularly early trauma, grief, or things that happened before we had words — image-making offers a route that talking cannot.
Who benefits from art therapy
Art therapy is not a niche intervention for a specific population. I have worked with:
- Children and adolescents who lack the vocabulary or safety to talk about what is happening for them
- Adults processing grief or loss — of a person, a relationship, a version of themselves
- People who have been in talk therapy and feel stuck — the same material keeps circling without movement
- Trauma survivors for whom verbal re-processing feels overwhelming
- Expats and people in transition navigating identity questions that are hard to articulate
- Anyone curious about self-exploration who wants a different kind of access to their inner life
You do not need to be in crisis to benefit. Art therapy is equally useful for people who are functioning well but want to go deeper.
The role of the therapist
In art therapy, the therapist is not there to interpret your work. There is no "a red circle means X." The work is yours. What the therapist does is ask questions, stay present, and help you notice what is already there — in the image, in your body as you made it, in the stories you attach to it.
As a SPAT-certified art therapist with training in clinical psychology and coaching, I integrate art therapy with other approaches as needed. Sometimes it is the primary medium. Sometimes it is one thread within a broader therapeutic process.
A note for sceptics
If you are reading this and thinking "this is not for me" — that reaction is worth noticing. Sometimes the things that feel least relevant to us are the ones that are most useful.
Art therapy does not require belief. It requires a willingness to show up, pick up a material, and see what happens. That is enough to start.
Andreia Teles is a SPAT-certified art therapist and clinical psychologist based in the Algarve. She works with adults, children and adolescents in Albufeira, Portimão and online.