By Adrienne Johnson, MA, LMHC, LPC, ATR

Eating disorders often thrive in isolation and secrecy, sometimes manifesting as an internal voice that encourages eating disorder behaviors and increases anxiety. For many clients we work with at Farrington, they have never spoken some of these thoughts out loud to another person. It requires time and patience to uncover this inner voice and learn to understand it, then counteract those thoughts and behaviors. As Lisa D. Hinz states in her book Drawing from Within: Using Art to Treat Eating Disorders, “Art expression provides information from three sources: the person, the process of creating, and the final product.”

This is where art therapy can enter treatment. Art therapy can be used by a trained clinician to explore inner thought processes using a variety of art mediums. This may be the point where some of you think, “OK, but I’m not an artist, I can barely draw a stick figure!” For those who have had the opportunity to work with me, they’ll get to hear me explain that everyone is an artist. What we will focus on in the beginning of art therapy is the process of art-making, while releasing the expectation of creating a frameable product.

There are a variety of interventions that can be used in art therapy that fall outside of what people make consider as art materials. Imagine with me for a moment that something really frustrating has happened to you. You would like to be able to express that energy, but it doesn’t feel safe or you have no idea what to do. One option that I give clients in sessions, both individually and in groups, is ripping paper to express that energy. Sometimes we rip paper into super tiny pieces and sometimes we stack multiple pages together and see what it feels like to rip up 10 pages all at once. This action utilizes the kinesthetic elements of the Expressive Therapies Continuum, and can encourage the experience of transferring that frustrated or anxious energy into a tangible action.

Trusting the process is hard! Many people stopped making art or doing creative things at a young age. It can feel vulnerable to try a new art media while exploring the functions of your eating disorder. By participating in art therapy interventions, you may be able to dip a toe into that exploration without using a single word. Finding recovery from an eating disorder is a process. Creative exploration of emotions and experiences with art therapy can be a great addition to that healing process.

Hinz, L. D. (2006). Drawing from within: Using art to treat eating disorders. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Hinz, L. D. (2020). Expressive therapies continuum: A framework for using art in therapy. Routledge.