I know, I know I am a day late with this blog but maybe this might shed some insight as to why. The power of art therapy, I know myself when having a bad day or even tough times in my life creating art can lift even the darkest of spirits in the most desperate of times. After my son was diagnosed with ASD, Aspergers Spectrum Disorder I looked into many therapies and sought help from any professional therapists I could find, including art therapy.
Although from what I could see art therapy was a little unconventional, however wanting to help even with outside of box ideas was fine by me. Thankfully my son loves art and has loved his art therapy. It has been a great source of release for him. It is an outlet that he gets to do something creative and at the end of it with out even realising it has worked through some of his issues.
With most therapies once you have a diagnoses you can get funding for therapies. However not with art therapy there is no funding from the government as it is not seen as a recognised therapy. Which as an artist I am offended by as my son has had his biggest break throughs from / during his art therapy. Art Therapy is underestimated as far a therapy is concerned. Having fun can be when your the most relaxed and working on issues when in a better frame of mind can help deal with and may even overcome the issues.