Depression can feel like a heavy fog, dulling motivation, clouding thoughts, and making even small tasks overwhelming. Art therapy offers a direct, hands-on way to do something about how you’re feeling, process these emotions and regain a sense of control. Through creative expression, adults can explore feelings that are difficult to articulate, engage the senses, and reconnect with their inner resources.
Why Art Therapy is Effective for Depression
Depression often makes verbal expression feel inadequate. Art therapy provides a nonverbal bridge to understanding your emotions:
- Externalizing Feelings: Translating emotions into colors, shapes, or textures makes them tangible and easier to process.
- Engaging Multiple Senses: Working with different materials activates attention, mindfulness, and creativity, helping to activate multiple parts of the brain in order to interrupt depressive rumination.
- Restoring Agency: Completing a self-directed creative activity—even a small one—reinforces autonomy and a sense of accomplishment.
- Practicing Acceptance: Learning to be open to your own creativity and artwork helps you to develop increased acceptance of yourself and others.
At New Prairie Counseling Center, Registered Art Therapist Dorothy Dvorachek Larsen guides you through an open studio art therapy approach designed specifically to address depressive symptoms, promote emotional insight, and help you to reconnect with what is life-giving to you.
Research shows that art therapy can reduce depressive symptoms, improve self-esteem, and foster emotional resilience. By prioritizing the creative process, you gain insights and coping strategies in a safe, guided environment.
Many adults assume art therapy is mainly for kids or worry they’re “not creative enough”, but neither is true. Art therapy focuses on expression and emotional processing, not artistic skill or how the artwork looks in the end. It’s about giving yourself space to explore your inner world in a different way—not about technical skill. In fact, many adults who benefit the most from art therapy start out unsure of their creative abilities and discover that what matters most is the experience—not making something perfect.
Try an Open Studio-Inspired Exercise at Home
Here’s a practical exercise inspired by the open studio model of art therapy that provides a glimpse into the therapeutic process:
Exercise: Free Choice Creation
- Materials: Any art materials you have—paper, markers, pencils, paints, or clay.
- Instructions: Set a timer for 10–15 minutes. Create anything that calls to you in the moment—shapes, colors, textures, abstract patterns, or symbolic images. With art therapy, there is no judgement. Rather than being attached to a specific product, it’s about creating for expression. There are no rules, no right or wrong outcomes, just what you feel inspired to make.
- Reflection: Afterward, what do you notice about what you made? Did the act of creating allow feelings to surface or even transform? What shapes, colors, or patterns emerged, and what differences do you sense between how you felt before starting and after finishing?
Why it helps:
- Provides a tangible way to externalize emotions.
- Encourages autonomy and personal choice—often diminished in depression.
- Offers expression of and insight into mood patterns and emotional preferences, even without verbalizing them.
Next Steps
Art therapy is not just a supportive activity—it’s a primary approach to managing depression. Engaging in open studio exercises at home can offer immediate insight and relief, but working with a trained art therapist ensures the process is safe, meaningful, and tailored to your needs.
At New Prairie Counseling Center, Registered Art Therapist Dorothy Dvorachek Larsen provides you with the guidance, structure, and creative freedom necessary to navigate depression, regain emotional balance, and rebuild a sense of agency. Schedule a session today and discover how expressive, self-directed art-making can be a powerful step toward feeling more like yourself.
Who Can Benefit
Art therapy under the guidance of a Registered Art Therapist is effective for adults experiencing:
- Persistent low mood or loss of interest
- Difficulty expressing emotions
- Feelings of guilt, shame, or self-criticism
- Life transitions, burnout, or chronic stress
Even individuals with mild depressive symptoms can benefit from creative exploration, insight, and the restorative effects of self-directed art-making.
Dorothy Dvorachek Larsen is an experienced art therapist who blends creative expression with trauma-informed counseling to support healing and self-discovery. She works collaboratively with all ages, helping you feel understood, empowered, and grounded.