What are the Benefits of Art Therapy for Addiction?

Art helps individuals spiritually develop as part of engaging in creative production and contemplating works of art. Even during drug and alcohol rehab, we can see the benefits of art therapy for addiction. It gives us a healthy way to express our feelings and emotions without turning to drugs or alcohol.

Art therapy for addiction isn’t usually a stand-alone treatment. It’s apart of individualized treatment plans with various kinds of therapy integrated for treatment of patients’ minds, bodies, and spirit. Today, art therapy for addiction treatment is often a part of quality rehabs’ offerings, alongside other treatment modalities.

Ask your intake specialist about combining art therapy with any of the following programs:

• Residential drug rehab
• Partial hospitalization program (PHP)
• Intensive outpatient program (IOP)
• Men’s and women’s rehab programs
• Executive drug rehab program

Types of Art Therapy

Creativity and self-expression combine in art therapy for addiction to provide a medium for self-recognition and communication. Types of art therapy offered in recovery settings usually include:

• Drawing and painting
• Sculpting or ceramics
• Music
• Acting or psychodrama therapy
• Dance
• Poetry

Benefits of Art Therapy for Addiction

Art therapy is one form of group therapy that can help people express their innermost thoughts and feelings without verbal expression. Art therapy for addiction can be particularly helpful for people who have suffered trauma or abuse, as co-occurring conditions of their addiction.

Combining the expressiveness of art with dual diagnosis treatment leads to a more fulfilling life of sobriety.

Under the guidance of an art therapist, art therapy provides a means for those struggling with addiction to:

• Explore feelings
• Reconcile emotional conflicts
• Foster self-awareness
• Develop social skills
• Improve orientation to reality
• Reduce anxiety
• Increase self-esteem

Art therapy helps to restore or enhance patients’ functioning along with their sense of well-being. Art therapy also provides patients with understanding and coping skills. Through art, individuals are able to tap into life aspects they cannot express through words in conversation. Art therapy in addiction treatment group settings also helps bring peers closer together for improved socialization, compassion, and understanding.

Starting Treatment Using Art Therapy

Art therapy is, of course, only one facet of treatment in addiction recovery. But patients who have an interest in the arts, are creative, or seek mediums of expression where they feel safe, are naturally drawn to recovery programs offering art therapy. Even patients who have never involved themselves in creative expression before find great comfort and peace in art therapy programs.

Beaches Recovery in Jacksonville, Florida provides art therapy as one option within individualized treatment plans. Art therapy goes alongside multiple forms of effective therapy designed to help patients in the recovery of their minds, bodies, and spirits. Healing after drug and alcohol addiction can be challenging, but these holistic therapy programs add a positive experience to treatment.

Art therapy for addiction effectively addresses the spiritual needs of those in addiction recovery. In 1976, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) used decades of experience in addiction recovery to affirm that a spiritual basis for living is absolutely necessary if recovery is to be successful. It is possible to further strengthen your recovery and decrease the chances of relapse.

Contact Beaches Recovery

In addition to art therapy, Beaches Recovery offers a number of programs to help you overcome addiction. These programs include:

• Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)
• Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)
• Equine therapy program
• Music therapy program
• Fitness therapy
• Individual, family, and group counseling

If you or a loved one suffers from addiction and are interested in art therapy as part of your recovery process, contact Beaches Recovery today at 866.605.0532. Using your own creativity, you can visualize and express all you want from your new life of sobriety.