This is the most commonly known type of art therapy. It includes drawing, painting, collage-making, and sculpting. These activities allow individuals to externalize their inner world, turning thoughts and emotions into visible forms. For individuals struggling with addiction, creating visual art can provide a powerful outlet for feelings that are hard to verbalize, such as guilt, shame, fear, or hope.

Though often considered its own discipline, music therapy shares common ground with art therapy. It uses sound, rhythm, and melody to facilitate emotional expression, relaxation, and stress reduction. Clients may engage in listening to music, playing instruments, such as participating in a drum circle, or writing lyrics.

This type of expressive therapy uses body movement as a form of emotional expression and healing. Movement can release stored trauma and help individuals reconnect with their physical selves, an important step for people who have numbed their emotions through substance use.

Drama therapy incorporates storytelling, improvisation, role-playing, and performance. It allows clients to act out situations, emotions, or memories in a therapeutic setting, offering fresh perspectives and catharsis.

Also called bibliotherapy, this form of therapy involves journaling, poetry writing, or reading literature to explore thoughts, beliefs, and emotions. Writing allows for deep introspection and can help uncover patterns of behavior or subconscious triggers related to addiction.

A therapist may ask a client to close their eyes, imagine a peaceful or triggering scenario, and then draw what they see. This helps connect inner experiences with external representations, opening up meaningful discussions.

Mandalas are circular designs that can represent balance and unity. Creating and coloring mandalas has a calming effect and can help regulate anxiety, a valuable benefit for individuals in recovery.

Using cut-out images and words from magazines, clients create a visual story or vision board. This can be used to explore past trauma or to set intentions for the future, such as visualizing life in recovery.

Creating a self-portrait allows clients to examine their sense of identity. It may help them reflect on who they are today, who they were during active addiction, and who they want to become in recovery.

Clients might be asked to use colors to represent different emotions. This technique helps them recognize and articulate feelings they might otherwise suppress or ignore.

Without specific instructions, clients use any materials available to create freely. This unstructured approach can reveal subconscious thoughts and emotions and is often very liberating.

Clients don’t need to be artists to benefit. The focus is on expression, not perfection.

Not all art activities are therapeutic. True art therapy should be facilitated by a licensed art therapist or trained counselor familiar with expressive arts techniques.

Just like traditional therapy, art therapy can bring up intense feelings. It’s important that sessions are guided in a safe, structured environment where emotional reactions can be addressed appropriately.

Art therapy works best when used alongside other modalities such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and medication-assisted treatment (MAT).

As with all forms of therapy, maintaining privacy and creating a judgment-free space is crucial to success.