It's Not Therapy, It's Art Therapy: Your Guide To College Problem-Solving

Use Art to Deal with College Stress

Still having a tough time getting back into your courses this term? Get out a pen and notebook — don’t worry, we’re not studying.

Although art is great for your studio-based classes, it’ also a great way to unwind and to let your mind free-associate. You might even think more clearly after some mindless coloring. Through the arts, you can stay in touch with your inner self, your aliveness and what makes you “you” underneath the façade of stress.

Creativity can be used on a canvas at first, but then it has the power to unlock all the creative coping tools we have within. According to the American Art Therapy Association (AATA), art therapy is “the therapeutic use of art making, within a professional relationship, by people who experience illness, trauma or challenges in living, and by people who seek personal development.” Art therapy helps us with our internal struggles, and by tapping into our passion, it reduces anxiety.

Creative Affirmations Help You Push Through

Creative affirmations often help us get through day-to-day struggles of school. They can help us make decisions. Art can prompt questions to periodically ask yourself, such as: Is this decision I am making supporting my aliveness right now?

Affirmations can even be a starting prompt to a creative exercise. For example, how would you paint this affirmation? “My inner voice is warm, compassionate and loving.”

I love visual metaphors to help stay on the right track. I like to imagine anxious, stressed-out thoughts as red frantic tadpoles along a river, swimming swiftly through my mind. I imagine myself kneeling by a riverside, just calmly noticing those tadpoles passing down the river. I see the tadpoles pass on by and leave my view. As I notice these thoughts come and go, I say to myself, “My anxious thoughts are like tadpoles in a river. They keep swimming toward me and quickly swim away as I let them pass.”

The best way to use visualization is to create one yourself. This is where art becomes any college kid’s superpower. You can guide yourself through an exercise with a prompt, or the exercise can be more free-form, and you can draw the first thing that comes to your mind. Often, it is intimidating to start, but when encouraged to just make a mark on the paper, your subconscious often will take over and even you will be surprised by what you see!

Art Therapy Does What Talk Therapy Can’t

Art helps you connect with your truer, more authentic self and lets you tap into the stronger part of yourself — the YOU underneath your course-load. With this new-found confidence in who you are, you can attack your school work with a newfound energy and bright, innovative ideas!

I’m not just talking about a paintbrush when I say “make some art.” Through drawing, sculpting, painting, music, dancing, poetry and more, we can convey our experiences in expressive ways where words sometimes fail. Sometimes sitting in a chair talking to a stranger is intimidating. Art is the vessel we need at this moment.

When assignments start to pile up, we stress. But does stress get anything done? Art therapy can give us a way out from the mind-maze of anxiety. Our minds wander with free associations when we start to create, and often we can even discover things about ourselves we’ve never even thought of.

When I paint, I paint those terrible anxious feelings that eat away at me. My paintbrush is how I pinpoint what’s really going on when I’m anxious or stressed. I paint my tears, broken hearts and life-shattering thunderbolts, but I also paint my joy in flowers, dancing girls and singing trees. Most importantly, I paint whatever I feel from the heart. Over the years, I have found recurrent symbols appearing in my paintings — a red blob of paint usually shows me I’m feeling anxious, whereas a blue tear drop shows me I am caught up in a trauma from the past and I need to take some time out for self-care and reflection. Art will always be my lifeline to myself, and I’m so grateful I’ve discovered this powerful tool.

So get a crayon to write with, get a napkin to doodle on, and start scribbling. Think of it as “self-work.” Your homework will be much easier afterwards!

All artwork was created by Amy in her own healing process. Learn about her#LoveMyDetour movement, and how she is creating compassion through telling her own story.