b'well COUNSELING SERVICES
art Therapy
Trauma-Sensitive, Neuroscience-Informed Art Therapy in Towson
Art therapy at B’well Counseling Services invites you to explore the creative process as a pathway toward healing, insight, and growth. Art therapy allows us space to momentarily step out of overwhelm, stress, or painful memories - losing ourselves in color, texture, and movement - while at the same time, we begin to rediscover parts of ourselves that may have felt hidden, silenced, or fragmented. Rooted in trauma-informed neuroscience, existential psychotherapy, and established art therapy theory, our approach integrates mind, body, and imagination to help you reconnect with your inner strength, deepen self-understanding, and create meaningful change.
Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.
-- Thomas Merton
What is Art Therapy?
Some experiences go beyond words. When people are struggling with powerful emotions, facing life challenges, managing the impacts of trauma, or navigating personal crises — their words may fail in communicating and expressing the depth and complexity of their pain and suffering. They may have difficulty describing how they are feeling, unable to make sense of their internal experiences, or struggle to understand their behaviors. They may feel “stuck” in their thoughts, emotionally flooded, or there may be an urge to want to “do something” with what they are thinking, feeling, and experiencing.
Art therapy is an action-oriented, strengths-based therapeutic approach that integrates psychotherapy (talk therapy) with the creative process to help clients express themselves beyond the limits of verbal language. Through exploring art materials, making images and engaging in the creative process, and verbally reflecting on the artwork and the experience of creating, clients can safely explore thoughts and feelings, examine and externalize distress, identify patterns, find personal meaning, and visualize new ways of relating to themselves and the world. Art therapy is a mind-body process that engages the brain’s emotional, sensory, and cognitive systems in healing, offering regulation and a restored sense of internal balance.
Art therapy is holistic, inviting the brain, body, and spirit into the therapeutic process as energy and attention are given to both making art and reflective processing. Art therapy is informed by neuroscience theory, incorporating bilateral movement and whole brain activation in the artmaking process as different art materials and creative techniques are suggested based on the client’s individualized therapeutic goals and areas of focus. As emphasis is given to the creative artmaking process, the artwork itself also plays a role in processing, externalizing, and integrating. Art therapists help clients understand the metaphors and messages that emerge in their artwork and the art itself often becomes a window or “canvas mirror” through which clients can view conflicts, challenges, and aspects of themselves.
Who Can Benefit from Art Therapy?
Artistic skill or experience with art is not at all required to benefit from art therapy. No prior experience is required to benefit from art therapy– You don’t have to be an artist or even “artsy” to make art. Art therapy is about expression, exploration, curiosity, and process. It’s not about what kind of art you do, but more about what art can do for you.
Art therapy may be especially helpful for folks:
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Feeling overwhelmed or emotionally flooded
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Stuck in cycles of avoidance or overthinking
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Feeling numb, disconnected, or lost
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Navigating life transitions or identity shifts
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Feeling held back by perfectionism or self-criticism
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Navigating the impact of trauma or symptoms of PTSD
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Wanting to explore themselves in a deeper, embodied way
What can you expect from Art Therapy with B'well?
Art therapy is a collaborative process– a journey where both the client-artist and the art therapist each offer their knowledge to guide the way towards healing. Together, you will develop goals for treatment and begin to explore how art therapy can help you create the changes you want to see in your life. Your art therapist will not tell you what your images mean, but will help to guide you through the creative process and will work with you to see and understand the messages and meaning in your images and your artistic process. Art therapy sessions often begin with a check-in and discussion of areas of focus. You might continue with an ongoing project or your art therapist might make suggestions of materials or themes based on what you’ve shared. Time will be given to create artwork during the session with time saved toward the end for discussion and verbal processing.
You may create new art each session or continue to develop projects. Your art therapist may encourage you to try different art media such as color pencils, paints, clay, and collage. Sometimes the focus may be on process (releasing energy, channeling emotion, connecting with relaxation, finding flow) and other times the focus may be on the art product (visualizing a thought pattern, expressing an emotion, exploring an experience, shifting perspective). At times, structure may be provided in the form of a theme or prompt, and other times your therapist may encourage you toward intentional spontaneous artmaking. You may explore different styles of expression, using doodling, abstract designs, and contour drawing, and sometimes non–traditional art materials (e.g. tree branches, leaves, books, atypical painting tools) are intentionally introduced to you in order to expand your creative expression. Art therapy is individualized and collaborative. Art therapists have specialized training in fine art and creative techniques, psychological theory, counseling and psychotherapy, human development, and neuroscience theories, giving them a unique perspective in mental health treatment.
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A safe, nonjudgmental, collaborative space: Support in safely accessing and engaging with complex emotions where you can come as you are
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Guidance: Support in artistic expression, channeling thoughts and feelings into visual artwork, and in understanding the meaning and messages in your art images
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Expression: Appreciation for you uniqure journey, values, and strengths
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Sense of control: A way to explore difficult, charged, or overwhelming thoughts and feelings through containment, creativity, and choice
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Change: Techniques to help you get out of your head and moving forward faster
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Tangible support: Practical tools for sensory grounding, emotion regulation, mindfulness, and containment
Through drawing, painting, collage, sculpture, and other creative modalities, clients are guided to:
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Express what feels hard to put into words
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Access and release emotions stored in the body
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Gently process trauma and nervous system activation
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Strengthen regulation and mindfulness
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Explore identity, meaning, and life transitions
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Practice shifting perspective and creative problem solving
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Strengthen flexibility, curiosity, and self-compassion
Ready to Begin?
Art Therapy at B’well will help you move from surviving, to creating, to thriving: transforming pain into possibility, giving you techniques to get out of your head and moving forward faster, and finding your voice- one brushstroke at a time. Reach out today to schedule a complimentary initial consult today.
Looking for support in your Journey?
Our clinicians offer in-person counseling in Towson, and online
throughout Maryland and Florida.
B'well's Promise
In our work, B’well therapists…
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support adolescents and adults struggling with questions about their gender identity, gender expression, sexual attraction, and romantic attraction
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help individuals design the way they want to be in relationship while staying connected to their own and their partner’s/s’ needs
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acknowledge the natural experience of grieving lost beliefs, expectations, identities, and community that can occur as people begin living life as their truest selves
About B'well Counseling Services
B'well Counseling Services is a welcoming and open-minded practice at home right outside of Baltimore, Maryland. Our therapists specialize in providing counseling services including but not limited to:
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Anxiety and Depression
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Sexual Health
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Intuitive Eating
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Life Transitions
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Mindfulness & Emotional Regulation
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Brainspotting
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Substance dependency
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Grief
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... and so much more
At B'well, we are dedicated to creating a space for anyone who has ever felt unwelcome because of their identity, orientation, or expression.
