Art Therapy for Anxiety

and Susie McGaughey, MA, ATR, LPC

Finding anxiety therapy in St. Louis can feel overwhelming, because you want to find the best fit for your child.

At Compassionate Counseling St. Louis, all of our therapists are trained in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and skills building, and each therapist brings their own additional specialties to their work with our clients. We want to make sure we’re always tailoring our approach to the anxious and angry kids, teens, and college students we love working with.

One specific type of therapy we offer is art therapy with Susie McGaughey. So this week, we interviewed Susie to learn more about art therapy and how she uses the creative processes with clients.

Susie McGaughey, Registered Art Therapist

This is a big question, but briefly, what is art therapy?  

Art therapy uses art materials, the creative process, and the resulting artwork as a tool for the therapeutic and healing process. Just as a painting or a piece of music can say something in ways that almost defy description, art therapy provides individuals facing physical, emotional, and cognitive challenges new pathways toward understanding and self-expression.  At Compassionate Counseling St. Louis, art therapy can be a wonderful focus of therapeutic treatment with some clients, along with being utilized as an additional clinical intervention for our anxiety-focused skills building. 

Why did you decide to become a registered art therapist?

I have always been drawn to anything that allows for creative self-expression—writing, theater, movement, the visual arts. And I’ve always been drawn to working with and supporting people.  I had been using creative processes for my own wellbeing for years but didn’t know about the field of art therapy until I met an art therapist while working at a shelter for unhoused women and children.  When those kids would return from an art therapy session, they were markedly different. They seemed calmer and lighter. I was amazed. And I knew this was what I was meant to do. Art therapy so beautifully combines my love of creative expression with my love of helping others.

How do you incorporate art and anxiety therapy?

When utilizing art therapy to work with anxiety, I often start with the materials themselves.  Clients who may be struggling to feel a sense of control in their lives might benefit from using pencils and stencils which can provide that type of more structured art making experience. Clients who might want or need to loosen up their grip on life or who need to focus on relaxing and calming might really benefit from using more fluid materials like watercolors and chalks which force you to just let go and express more freely. 

With clients who are hesitant to create or struggle to feel capable, I might start them with relating to pre-cut collage images. Sometimes the art product itself becomes a tool for coping with anxiety and worry, like creating “Worry Monsters” out of tissue boxes, painting as a reminder of guided meditation, or making calming glitter jars for a mindfulness moment.  

Art can also be used to depict troublesome thoughts or worries that are difficult to put into words and that we want to really look at together.

Drawings can help bring to life an image of a goal or what they hope life might look like in the future. Often with anxiety work, we are trying to bring to the surface of one’s awareness, those thoughts and feelings that are invisible but very present in the inner world of our clients.  Art can help make the invisible visible in a way that is often enjoyable for clients and typically feels more comfortable for anxious clients than talking about it directly.    

Do you only provide art therapy, or do you use other types of therapy in your sessions?

I often incorporate creative self-expression in my work with any clients if they are open to it.  But I absolutely use other modalities in my therapy work including play therapy techniques, mindfulness activities, and cognitive behavioral therapy theories and interventions.  When clients come to Compassionate Counseling St. Louis, parents and kids often have the goal of learning and practicing coping skills to manage anxiety, stress, and anger.  A lot of what I do with clients is that type of skill building and finding creative ways to learn those and to practice them as we go.

Can you use art therapy for kids, teenagers, AND college students?  

Art therapy can be beneficial to any aged person and with any level of skill, comfort, or experience working with art materials.  It is all about the process and not the product—significant therapeutic benefit and change happens in the ‘doing’ and in the meaning behind the work and not in the work itself.  As an art therapist I have worked with every age, from very young children to adults up to elderly clients.  I have run art therapy sessions for individuals, for  small groups, and for large gatherings in a workshop or retreat setting. 

Do you still use art therapy interventions during virtual counseling sessions? How do you incorporate it online?

I’ve been incorporating art therapy into my virtual sessions throughout the pandemic.  As long as clients have some basic art materials available to them at home, I can lead them in art therapy interventions, just like I might in the office. Sometimes, I’ll provide parents/guardians with a list of ideal materials to have available for each session in order to make the most of our therapy time and to have options for more self-directed therapy work with kids.

What do you wish people knew about getting therapy for anxiety and trauma disorders, specifically through art therapy?

Art can speak when words are too difficult and can be such a powerful tool of connection to one’s inner life, both past and present, and requires no experience or talent to utilize that tool. In fact, sometimes talent can get in a person’s way of using art in this way so, with no experience, you may actually be at an advantage!

Compassionate Counseling St. Louis really specializes in working with kids, teens, and young adults with anxiety-driven anger. As an art therapist who provides anxiety therapy, what overlap do you notice between anxiety, anger management, and conduct issues?

I used to say that I worked at a school for students with "emotional and behavioral issues". I now understand that all behavioral issues are emotional issues. What is perceived as "bad" behavior is the result of some emotional struggle within a person.  Anxiety is the root cause of SO MANY behaviors. When a person is overwhelmed with stress and worry and doesn't know where to go with it or what to do with it, frustration and anger builds and grows.  A person can only hold that for so long before it needs a release and that's when we see verbal and physical aggression, self-harm, substance abuse, and other destructive behaviors. It is so important to peel back the layers and to view behaviors not as the problem themselves but as an outward manifestation of inner turmoil. 

When might a parent consider signing their child up for art therapy? Alternatively, when is art therapy not such a good fit?

While art therapy can be beneficial to anyone who is open to the idea of including creativity in the therapy process, art therapy is particularly beneficial to children and adolescents who have big imaginations and enjoy creative thinking and play, those that struggle with verbal expression, those who already turn to the arts as a means of self-expression, and for those who have had difficult life experiences, maybe even traumatic experiences, that may be hard to talk about. 

If someone is very resistant to artmaking, they might not be open enough to explore it in session initially.  When someone is very skilled in visual arts and has very high expectations of what art should be, they can have a hard time giving over to the more open and expressive nature of artmaking that is typically involved during an art therapy session. 

When scheduling a session with you at Compassionate Counseling St. Louis, should I specifically ask for art therapy on the consultation call or should we discuss during our first session?

You don’t have to be sure that you want to receive art therapy when you’re scheduling at Compassionate Counseling St. Louis, but you can definitely share your interest in learning more about art therapy during the consultation call.  

Once you’re booked, we will still have a check-in and time to discuss your clinical goals and what’s been going on, so that we can make the best plan together. Depending on your goals and my recommendations, we can start to conceptualize how we will proceed with treatment. You will always be involved and know what is going on every step of the way!

Curious to learn more about art therapy and anxiety therapy for kids, teens, young adults/college students in St. Louis? Compassionate Counseling St. Louis provides specialized anger management and anxiety therapy in St. Louis. We work in Clayton, MO and serve kids, teens, and college students throughout St. Louis City, St. Louis County, Ladue, University City, Town and Country, Webster Groves, Creve Coeur, Kirkwood, Richmond Heights, and Brentwood. You can set up your free phone screening to see if we’re a good fit for your needs right on our website.

Thumbnail Credit: Anima Visual