Art for healing

You don’t need to be an artist. You just need to show up.

Something shifts when you stop trying to find the words and start working with color through art for healing instead. For a lot of people, that shift is the beginning of something they couldn’t get to any other way. This is what creative arts-based wellness work looks like in Janet’s practice.

Art for healing gallery

Person's hands wearing blue gloves holding a white canvas with purple abstract art

What actually happens through art for healing

People who use art for healing for the first time usually say the same thing afterward: they didn’t expect it to feel like that.

For some, it’s the first time they’ve been able to approach something painful without being inside it. For others, it’s simply that their shoulders dropped and their mind went quiet. You might work with paint, markers, collage, or clay.

The medium is not the point. What comes up when you use it is. No art experience required. Nothing to judge. Nothing to get right.

Who art for healing helps

Art for healing approaches are particularly useful for trauma survivors, people healing from sexual abuse, and anyone who finds that traditional talk therapy hits a wall. They are also useful for anxiety, depression, grief, and the kind of anger that has nowhere to go.

But honestly, the most common thing Janet hears is: “I didn’t think this would work for me.” And then it does.

Breathing into Color workshops

Breathing into ColorTM cover on a phone and tablet

A creative arts-based wellness workshop experience — no insurance required, no art skills needed

Sometimes talking isn’t the easiest way in. Breathing into Color is a structured workshop experience designed to help you use color, creativity, and breath to process what’s hard to put into words.

Facilitated by Janet Dowell, art therapy practitioner and Licensed Clinical Social Worker, these workshops are grounded in the therapeutic benefits of creative expression. They’re not a replacement for therapy, and they don’t require an insurance referral or a diagnosis. They’re for anyone who wants a gentler, more accessible starting point. Workshops are held online. No art experience required. Just show up.

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