LGBTQ-Affirming Treatment
Addiction treatment works best when it addresses the whole person — not only what someone used, but what they were carrying when they reached for it. Art therapy offers another way to do that work: a creative process that runs alongside counseling and group therapy, not in place of it.
Understanding Art Therapy
Art therapy and personal art-making are different things. A person who returns to a creative practice during recovery is using art — but that is not the same as clinical art therapy, which is a defined mental health discipline with its own training standards and professional body.
According to the American Art Therapy Association, art therapy is a mental health profession in which trained practitioners use the creative process of art-making to improve and enhance the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of individuals of all ages. The creative process can support self-awareness and self-esteem, and may provide a way to express feelings that are difficult to put into words directly. Artwork can also become a starting point for conversation within a session.[1]
Art therapy does not require artistic skill. What a person makes is not assessed for quality — the process of making is what matters.
A Story of Inspiration
The following account is drawn from the original article published on the Inspire Recovery blog in May 2017. The facts below are presented as reported at that time and have not been independently verified.[2]
Brian Menish was a painter when a motorcycle accident in 2007 left him with a traumatic brain injury and the permanent loss of dexterity in his right hand. The accident, as reported, was connected to his alcoholism and drug use. After the injury, he spent years pulled deeper into addiction, struggling with depression and thoughts of suicide.
Then his mother asked a question: had he tried painting with his left hand? Six months of left-handed painting later, he had enrolled in art school.
Menish’s story is not about clinical art therapy. It is about what returning to a personal creative practice can do — give someone a purpose and a direction in recovery that addiction was no longer competing with.
At the time the article was written, he was three years clean and sober and entering Cal State Fullerton’s fine arts program. The original article described him as “a bold example of how inspiration in the arts can give someone’s life meaning again.”
Art Therapy in Treatment
Creative activities can offer another way to express yourself and participate in recovery. Clinical art therapy uses art-making within a therapeutic relationship; personal creative activities can also have meaning without being clinical treatment. Ask admissions how creative approaches fit into treatment at Inspire Recovery.
Recovery is possible. We can help you find your way.
Our LGBTQ-affirming team is here to answer your questions and help you take the next step.
LGBTQ-Affirming Care
At Inspire, your identity is respected throughout your care. You can explore what you choose to share.
Art therapy is part of the treatment program alongside CBT, DBT, EMDR, and group therapy — another way to participate and communicate in treatment.
You do not have to face this alone. Speak privately with our affirming admissions team about safe next steps.
The Art Path
Furthermore, art can provide a meaningful direction for life’s pathway, like it did for Brian Menish. In the arts we can find a connection to what makes us human in a deeply honest and spiritual sense. Art is a reflection of our innate desire to be understood by others, and to understand other people and ourselves. Through art, statements can be made, corners of the mind can be explored and what is imaginative and other-worldly can be brought into reality. Through art’s journey to find answers to life’s big questions, many have left behind the superficial gratification, self-indulgent pleasure seeking, and fearful escape of addiction and alcoholism.
What is this creativity that exists in us all and overflows from the brims of some of us? What are the seemingly infinite modes this creativity can be expressed through? These are the shimmering uncertainties that can spark passion and ignite the flames of inspiration. Art is a fervorous intensity, a captivating spectacle and an alluring obsession far more complex and compelling than intoxication from any mere substance can be. Art can be freedom. We can chase our art. We can chase our recovery like we chased our addictions. May we all find our passions in recovery. May we all find our freedom from the limiting prisons of addiction that cage us from the limitless realm of all possibility.
Inspire Recovery offers LGBTQ-affirming outpatient treatment in West Palm Beach. Our admissions team can answer your questions, verify your insurance, and walk you through what to expect. Learn more about our full range of LGBTQ-affirming therapies, trauma-informed addiction treatment, or start the insurance verification process.
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