This article presents a rationale for using expressive art therapy with clients, and presents many of the forms and techniques that can be used. Included are discussions on art and drawing, play, sand tray work, writing. and storytelling. Resources for additional learning are recommended.Expressive art therapy attempts to reach clients with various problems through artistic expression of what lies within, and to fulfill the human need for selfexpression in a society that is becoming increasingly mechanized. Expressive art therapy is a vehicle for awakening dormant creativity, whereas psychotherapy assists clients in verbalizing their unspoken and unresolved conflicts. It contributes to restoring the cognitivehntellectual, emotionallaffect, and creativehnspiration vacuums in today's stress-driven, technological, impersonal, and often unsafe world.Expressive art therapy can lead clients of all ages to a better understanding of their unconscious through interpretation of developmental phases and of psychic structure as shown in their art work. Expressive art therapy is a means for accessing hidden resources and provides clients with a vehicle for expressing their internal conflicts and to do so throughout their life span. These therapies also help in the study of the ego (Kramer, 1993), as indicated by art therapists who have become aware of the relationship between graphic form and character development. With the introduction of psychoanalytic ego psychology, art therapists were able to recognize that inner consistency had a direct correlation with the unified expression of form and content in their clients' art work. The stronger the ego, the more cohesive the form and content become.In general, children are more receptive to expressive art therapy than adult clients who prefer an intellectual, verbal approach (Coleman & Farris-Dufrene, 1996), although clients of all ages can benefit from it. As in verbally oriented therapy, the relationship between the client and the counselor is the main factor in the progress and course of therapy. The dynamics between the two people are the primary tools, whether the client is talking to the therapist, playing with toys, or remaining quiet. The constancy is the presence of the therapist.
Beverly A. Snyder is an assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Correspondence regarding this article should be sent to