How do you all feel about art therapy?

I have been kind of in a malaise of not knowing what to do with my life, being depressed, and feeling useless while trying to figure it all out. However, I do know I want art to be in my life, and I know it often helps me to get outside my shell of gloom. I first got into theatre to socialize more!
So tonight I was looking into helping out women at a domestic violence shelter, when an idea I've had before popped up again: why not raise money for them with theatre? And then I thought: why not provide theatre as therapy!
Well, maybe not as formal therapy. I am not a therapist. But it could be a way to go, art therapy as a career.. or a volunteering option.
Has anyone on this blog experienced art therapy? Anyone use drama as therapy? I'd like to get your takes on it. I think working together with other people to put on a show is a cathartic experience and it can help. Like Eve Enslers' Vagina Monologues.

Hi bluedonna92, I'm too shy to get into drama plays but I do love art and arts and crafts. It's very relaxing for me and I feel like I've accomplished something when I'm finished with it

I think art therapy is great! All forms of it, drama/theater, singing and music, arts and crafts and such.

I think that's a great idea. You should pursue it as it can also benefit others.

They made us do it in the day hospital program, and it was a total joke. A big waste of time, and I couldn't believe Blue Cross was paying thousands of dollars a day for 1/6th of the day to be wasted like that. It was stupid, and I really resented it. This is why they sent me to the psych ward, to cut out letters from ancient People magazines and paste them on cardboard? I could have used that hour every day to have one on one therapy, which frankly wouldn't be any more expensive. I tried getting out of it by professing that I had to get some work done on my iPad for the office, since we have an online remote server I can log into, but they wouldn't let me. I would honestly have felt better had they let me sit in a quiet corner and do something useful with that hour, if they weren't going to do anything better than arts and crafts.

Now, on my own, doing something I enjoy, it's fine. That's different, it's not forced labor under prison conditions.

When I was IP art therapy was one of the options. I tried it but it did not help me.

However, other patients found it very productive - "different strokes for different folks" I guess.

When I was IP at my first rehab, and then doing a trauma IOP program, art therapy was mandatory. I despised it both times. I don't have an artistic bone in my body, and being forced to do it always made me feel like a failure.

When I've been IP for psych admissions, it was always an option, but I could, and did, opt out of it.

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When you have a structured art therapy class, meaning someone leads the group and gives you prompts which somehow opens things up. Thats why going to a real art therapist is important..anyone can give you prompts on what to write about or what to draw but a therapist in this genre knows key words or statements to make to get to the core of a person to help them heal. You dont have to be an artist, its what this therapy helps get out...the stuff locked up inside.

I think that art therapy is an extremely good way to get in touch with feeling and incidents in life. It can also be very soothing..... I had a number of private sessions with a lady who was trained in Therapy via drawing/painting. I like crayons the most because they were easy to handle. Its not about being an artist.

If you are interested in this area I would suggest having a couple of sessions with professionals in this field.

Omg, this is a really awesome idea. I love art too. Music, art, theater, dance, all therapeutic to me. I did a kind of theater therapy of my own in high school. I took a drama class and it was the best time of my life. Everyone was really supportive, and it was so fun making up skits. Good luck!

Thanks for all the comments! I think if I worked in an institution, I'd try doing it as an artist residency, and that way maybe it wouldn't be so regimented and frustrating. Also I was definitely thinking more on the lines of theater as therapy and dance, though I know those two things don't work for everyone.
I can imagine it must be difficult to feel like anyone is helping you when you cannot leave a place. My dad was stuck for a short time in a public hospital wing, and he was miserable there, which I don't blame him for. I wish I had been old enough to take care of him myself... his therapy is playing music but he couldn't have his trumpet in the hospital...
I know I made a lot of breakthroughs two years ago during a theatre workshop, which was a lot like group therapy because we incorporated our emotional lives into the piece. Everyone has different flow states... some find it through writing, some through painting, others through singing and dancing.
I'm gonna roll with this. I might first do a workshop to raise money for an organization that supports mental health. Then maybe I can meet some professionals who use theatre pieces as therapeutic journeys

Dose anyone know if a A psychiatrist doctor will let me do art therapy instead of taking meds ?

That would be awesome. I hate having to take meds every night, and I love art.

Back in the 70s and 80s music, art and role playing therapy were big and did help a lot of people. Then HMOs came along and insisted on cutting things that actually help patients but increased the bottom line for the boards. Now most of the IP art therapy is the cut out magazine and paste it on something variety. most therapy IP is handing out meds and yap yap therapy as it cost less.

Private hospitals that can charge more still my get offer real art therapy but it's mostly not covered by insurance. Mores the pity it greatly helped me with PTSD.