Yes! Art therapy by long distance is possible.
If you can doodle, you can do art therapy. No
talent is necessary. Usually drawings are done quickly and as spontaneously
as possible with color pencils or crayons. I usually offer a theme based
on our conversation.
How can art therapy help me? It can be used in two ways.
First as a way to express and release pent-up emotions. Second as a means
of communication that we do not usually tap into, a visual image of how
we feel, think. Pictures are permanent in a way words are not. We can also
return to these drawings later with often interesting new perspectives.
The same themes can be redrawn and in seeing the changes in the drawings,
we can see the changes in ourselves.
I have been using art therapy for a number of years and have recently included it in long distance counseling with the use of scanners or digital cameras. Visual images can be very expressive when our words either written or spoken are not enough. Dreams, our childhood memories, even our daily thoughts, are in images; it is not always possible to express them in words. By use of drawings through Art Therapy we can explore, understand and learn from our dreams, memories.
Art work is a means for the therapist and client to obtain a visual sense of the client that can be looked at from a ‘distance’ and explored. A dialogue between the client and the images are encouraged. This art work can be surprisingly insightful at times.