If you've ever undergone a traumatic experience, and you're still suffering, art therapy could help. At least, that's been the experience of Petrea Hansen-Adamidis (BA'89), a professional art therapist. She's in the business of helping people get a head start on healing and moving down the road to recovery.

    "For clients who are not very verbal, painting or drawing can become a starting point for discussion. Sometimes people express their loss better through art than words," she says. "Many issues are so traumatic that they are difficult for clients to talk about. Often, at a metaphorical level, the symbols in the art represent the struggles clients face."

    Art therapy is especially useful for children who, unlike adults, often have trouble expressing feelings verbally, says Hansen-Adamidis.

    With adults, the problem is just the opposite: they often use words to distance themselves from emotion. By using simple materials, art therapy can help break down barriers, she says. Her clients include survivors of abuse or trauma, addictions, family breakdown, self-abusers and those with physical or health losses.

    Although anyone can paint or draw without the aid of an art therapist, it helps to have someone who can witness your progress, she says. "The therapy is about the process, not the product. If you are working through a lot of issues, it may be too overwhelming to look at your art yourself."

    Hansen-Adamidis tells the story of how she had worked for a few months with an eight-year-old boy from an abusive home, who had English as a second language. "His English was limited. We communicated almost exclusively visually. At the beginning, I asked him to draw his favourite animal, and his work was flat and one-dimensional. But when I asked him to paint his favourite animal months later, his art had a new level of maturity I couldn't believe! Even though we worked mostly in silence, he knew that I was hearing him with my eyes. It brought home for me how art therapy had helped him grow."