How Can Art Therapy Help With Body Image and Self Esteem?
Written By: Taylor Bourassa, RP & DTATI
What do you think of when you hear body image? Self-esteem?
For some of us, how we experience our bodies is primarily an unconscious process, and for others, we are very aware of and self-conscious of our bodies and how we show up in the world. How we think about, perceive, and talk about our bodies matters.
What do you see when you look in the mirror and how do you interpret that perception? How does that interpretation impact you throughout the rest of your day?
Those who have dissatisfaction with their body may experience a distorted perception of their body; compare themselves to their past selves and others; and hold themselves to unattainably high standards. Not only does this have an impact on how you perceive yourself and your self-esteem, but it also impacts your intra and interpersonal relationships; impacts feelings of depression, anxiety, self-consciousness, and feelings of worthlessness.
Exploring Body Image and Self-Esteem Through Art Therapy
Using art to explore our feelings about our bodies can help us to familiarize ourselves with our perceptions, feelings, and judgements of our current lived experiences of our bodies. Through the externalization process, we can achieve a degree of separation or distance from these thoughts and feelings and work to re-frame them. We can gain new perspectives and actually try on new perceptions.
What if these thoughts and feelings didn’t define who we are or our bodies? They were simply the thoughts and feelings we were having at this moment. What if these thoughts and feelings didn’t have to be here forever?
Using art can help us to practice acceptance and non-judgement through our engagement with the art-making process, the final product, and our varied interpretations of the finished piece.
We can become familiar with these practices of acceptance and non-judgement and then extend them to ourselves: our bodies, our thoughts about our bodies, and our self-esteem. Showing compassion to ourselves for all the versions of ourselves and the different phases of our bodies can be incredibly healing for the relationship that we have with and to our bodies.
The Benefits of Art Therapy for Self Esteem
When exploring the power of art therapy on self-esteem, there are three main benefits: increased self-awareness, improved communication skills, and enhanced emotional regulation.
Creative activities give people an outlet to express their thoughts and feelings without having to talk about them directly. This type of therapy also encourages positive thinking by helping participants focus on the positive aspects of themselves instead of the negative ones.
Through art therapy, individuals can learn more about themselves while developing skills such as problem-solving and communication, ultimately leading to increased self-confidence and improved self-esteem.
The Benefits of Art Therapy for Body Image
Art therapy can also be beneficial for those struggling with negative body image or low self-worth due to societal or personal pressures. Through art therapy sessions, individuals can learn how to take care of themselves in healthy ways while learning new coping strategies for managing difficult emotions related to body image issues.
Instead of focusing on the "perfect" bodies seen in the media, art therapy helps participants become more aware of how they feel about their own bodies and how they can use artistic expression as a way to better appreciate themselves without comparison or judgement from others.
Creative expression through art can provide positive reinforcement for learning how to accept and love yourself as you are—and this is especially true for people struggling with negative body image or low self-esteem.
Final Thoughts
Art is a playful and curious experience and when we apply this same playfulness and curiosity to our bodies, we start to become more accepting and compassionate toward ourselves. Maybe even experience a bit more present-mindedness. Like Solas (2019) says in their blog post Learn to Appreciate your Body Through Art Therapy:
“When you approach your body with curiosity, it becomes more difficult to leap straight into the fire-pit of self-judgment” and “body appreciation is about learning to love your body, including all of your imperfections.”
Getting to know, accept and appreciate our bodies through art, has the potential to be healing and incredibly freeing. Wearing these affirmations and acceptances through the practice of wearable art, can become a daily reminder of the work that you have put into your relationship with your body and creates a space for you to remember to love, appreciate and speak kindly to yourself: no matter what!
About Taylor Bourassa (RP, DTATI, BA, BEd)
As a practitioner, I work a lot with body image and self-esteem, but I also experience some of these issues myself. All of these practices are practices that I began doing for myself. The embodied wearable art paired with letter writing and the reflexive process can be helpful in identifying, acknowledging, holding and validating these difficult feelings.
Using a compassion-focused lens means that we're not trying to change the feelings or thoughts, but create a space where it’s possible for us to hold these feelings when they do show up, without judging ourselves for having them in the first place.
Come check out details of Taylor’s upcoming group art therapy sessions called Self-Esteem And Body Image: Wearable Art.