Clinical Art Therapy in San Diego

Talking isn't always the easiest way to understand what you're experiencing.

At Patch Counseling, our therapists are trained in both Marriage and Family Therapy and Clinical Art Therapy, giving clients the option to incorporate creative expression into treatment based on their needs and goals.

You don't need to be artistic, and you don't have to make art in therapy.

What Is Clinical Art Therapy?

Art therapy is a mental health profession that combines psychotherapy, psychological theory, and the creative process within a therapeutic relationship.

Working with a trained art therapist, clients may use drawing, painting, collage, sculpture, or other forms of art-making to express and explore thoughts, emotions, and experiences that can be difficult to put into words.

Art therapy is different from an art class or simply using art to relax. The creative process is intentionally integrated into psychotherapy based on each client's needs and treatment goals.

Why Use Art When You Can Talk About It?

We don't always experience thoughts and emotions as neatly organized sentences.

An experience might be easier to describe through an image, color, or metaphor before you're able to explain exactly what it means. Art-making can give you something concrete to observe, reflect on, and discuss with your therapist.

For pre-teens and teens, this can be particularly useful when sitting across from an adult and answering questions feels uncomfortable or overwhelming. Creating something can reduce the pressure to talk while still allowing meaningful therapeutic work to happen.

For adults, Clinical Art Therapy can provide a different way to explore perfectionism, self-criticism, relationships, trauma, grief, and major life transitions. Sometimes you may understand a situation intellectually but continue to have difficulty changing how you feel or respond.

The purpose isn't to replace conversation. It's to give you another way into the conversation.

Art Therapy for Anxiety + Depression

For anxiety, art therapy can help make worries, fears, and self-critical thoughts more concrete, giving you something to observe and work with instead of remaining caught in a cycle of thinking about them.

For depression, the creative process can support emotional expression, engagement, and exploration of experiences such as disconnection, low self-worth, or feeling stuck.

At Patch Counseling, Clinical Art Therapy is integrated with approaches such as CBT, DBT, mindfulness, and EMDR based on your treatment goals.

Clinical Art Therapy for Pre-Teens + Teens

For young people, therapy can sometimes feel like another place where an adult is asking questions and expecting them to have the right answer. Art gives pre-teens and teens another way to participate.

Clinical Art Therapy can be used to develop emotional awareness, practice frustration tolerance, explore identity, and improve communication. The creative process also provides a space to experiment, make mistakes, and work through experiences related to social anxiety, self-harm, and fear of judgment.

As young people move through adolescence and develop a stronger sense of who they are, creative expression can provide space to explore ideas, perspectives, and values without requiring them to have everything figured out.

Our Training in Clinical Art Therapy

Allison Patch, LMFT, ATR, and Brittany Benjamin Amante, LMFT, ATR are Registered Art Therapists. Both completed graduate training in Marital and Family Therapy with a specialization in Clinical Art Therapy at Loyola Marymount University.

Our training included both psychotherapy and the clinical use of art within mental health treatment. Clinical Art Therapy is one of the foundations of how we work at Patch Counseling, but it is never a requirement. We collaborate with each client to determine which approaches make sense for their goals, preferences, and needs.

Want to learn more about how art therapy works? Read our Art Therapy blog.

Schedule a Consultation

Patch Counseling provides Clinical Art Therapy for pre-teens, teens, emerging adults, and adults at our office in Rancho Bernardo, San Diego. Online therapy is also available throughout California when appropriate.

If art therapy sounds interesting to you and you want to learn more, schedule your complimentary 15-minute phone consultation today.