Feeling Overwhelmed? How Expressive Arts Therapy Can Help With Stress
Stress is part of being human — but when it lingers, accumulates, or never fully turns off, it can quietly wear down your mind, body, and relationships.
Expressive arts therapy offers a different way to work with stress — one that doesn’t rely solely on talking or “thinking your way out of it,” and doesn’t require you to be artistic or creative in any particular way.
How Stress Can Affect You
We know what stress is — it has affected everyone on the planet in some way or another. But how do you actually define stress?
Merriam Webster defines it as “a state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in your life, work, etc.”
The NIH more comprehensively defines stress as “the feeling of being overwhelmed or unable to cope with mental or emotional pressure.”
However it’s defined, stress isn’t just a mental experience — it shows up in the body, often whether we want it to or not.Not all stress is bad, but stress that negatively affects our bodies and psyches can be incredibly harmful if left unchecked.
In short, stress:
Involves feeling overwhelmed
Can arise from emotional or physical demands
May be situational, ongoing, or chronic
Stress can impact various areas of our lives …
Emotional
Physical
Relational
It’s important to be able to recognize the effects so we can manage them and experience healthy emotional and relational connections
Expressive arts therapy is a method of managing stress that anyone can practice — and with rich results. At Express Your Path, I’m ready to walk you through some effective methods to not only help you cope but also help you build the tools to thrive.
How Stress Can Affect the Brain
If you’ve experienced moments of intense stress, you’ve likely also experienced a fuzzy head and difficulty concentrating.
Prolonged or intense stress can affect how the brain functions, sometimes leading to:
Shrinking of the brain
The killing of brain cells (especially those linked to processing emotions and memory)
Memory difficulties
Slowing the ability to learn
Increasing the likelihood of mental illness problems like:
Depression
Anxiety
Psychosis
PTSD
And more
How Stress Can Affect Your Body
Fatigue, headaches, and general aches and pains are common stress effects on the body. And chances are, you’ve experienced one or more of those effects yourself.
But the consequences of stress don’t stop there.
Stress can also have the following negative repercussions:
Physical pain
Sleep problems
Heart disease
Autoimmune diseases
Digestive problems
Reproductive issues
Stomach aches
Headaches
Chest pain
Problems with sex
Skin conditions (like eczema, acne, and hives)
Arthritis
How Stress Can Affect Your Relationships
Relationships can be hard — but add stress to the mix, and relationships can become extremely challenging.
Why does stress have a negative effect on relationships? Consider the following explanations:
Communication becomes difficult when people are dealing with stress. When someone bottles up their emotions, it keeps others around them from being able to communicate well and understand what their friend is going through.
Alienation can also be a result of stress on relationships. When under stress, people can tend to withdraw, get distracted, and show less affection, which can make friends and family feel like they’ve been put at arm’s length from them.
Stress can be like a virus and spread its contagion to those around. When folks are stressed, it can tend to stress others out as well.
Stress can make people feel more irritable, impatient, or emotionally reactive — which can strain even supportive relationships.
Couples experiencing stress not only experience these difficulties but may also experience difficulties with sex and intimacy, leaving one or both feeling like their needs are not getting met.
3 Ways Expressive Arts Therapy Can Help With Stress
Living with ongoing stress can be exhausting, but there are supportive, non-overwhelming ways to work with it.
Expressive arts therapy can be a helpful option for managing stress because:
Engaging in creativity helps release:
Serotonin (which helps stabilize mood)
Dopamine (which plays a role in pleasure and helps with focus; and
Oxytocin (which is associated with creating and strengthening relationships).
It provides space and tools to explore ways to express our experiences and emotions.
It can give us a sense of grounding and safety.
It can help create meaning for what is happening in our lives.
In addition, expressive arts therapy can:
Help release tension
Help reconnect with yourself; and
Teach us positive and healthy ways to relate to others
We’ll look at these three advantages below.
#1: It Offers a Safe Place to Release Tension and Built-Up Energy
Expressive arts therapy sessions can create an environment that allows you to express what you’re dealing with and learn methods of creativity that can help you.
To release tension, expressive arts therapy can help you unwind through:
Dance
Yoga movements
Nature walks
Drumming
Playing or listening to music
Visual art
If negative energy is what feeds your stress, expressive arts therapy for stress can provide a positive outlet to:
Release negative emotions
Process emotions; and
Establish a new outlet or hobby that can aid in maintaining lower levels of stress
#2 It Can Help You Reconnect With Yourself
When we experience stress, it’s easy to create compartments in our lives that distance us even from ourselves.
When you practice expressive arts therapy, you can reconnect with yourself in three ways:
With your physical body and what’s going on inside your body
With your emotions, including gaining understanding and perspective on your emotions
With both your body and emotions as we work to connect the two
Expressive arts therapy allows you to express your emotions freely without the pressure of feeling like you need the perfect words or specific experiences.
#3: It Can Teach Ways to Better Relate to Others
We’ve looked at the challenges that stress can cause to relationships. Expressive arts therapy can help alleviate those challenges and strengthen important relationships in our lives.
Here’s how:
Being able to express yourself through creative means can help you release bottled-up emotions that can help you in communicating with those closest to you.
Expressive arts therapy can create an outlet that rejuvenates you personally so that you can reconnect to those who may have been alienated by your heavy stress.
Regaining motivation, boosting your mood, and gaining a positive outlook through expressive arts therapy can help others to view you in a positive and more receptive way.
A Low-Pressure Way to Notice Your Stress
You don’t need to analyze this or do anything with it.
If you want, take a moment to notice:
– Where does stress tend to show up for you — in your body, your thoughts, or your energy?
– Does it feel loud, tight, heavy, numb, scattered, or something else?
There’s no right answer. Simply noticing is often the first step toward relief.
Expressive Arts Processes That Can Help Relieve Stress
Expressive arts therapy is multi-faceted and employs a variety of modalities. In therapy sessions, I will aim to guide you in finding the type of expressive arts outlet that best suits you and your needs.
When attempting to manage stress, some expressive arts that may be implemented include:
Neurographic drawing
Drawing or painting a mandala
Creating a piece with soothing images that are collected
Creating and listening to playlists based on emotion
Playlist with themes like hope, energy, calm, love, etc.
When choosing music, focus on how you feel when listening to them
Finger painting (provides a soothing sensory experience)
Knitting, crocheting, or weaving
Choose easy patterns
Provides focus on something other than one’s stress
Encourages you to slow down
Drumming
Movement like dance
Dance doesn’t need to be professional or polished
Just put on some music and move!
If stress is threatening to harm your health and your relationships, I’m here to help.
I’m Lisa Headings, a Registered Associate Therapist and expressive arts facilitator. I provide therapy options for adults living in the state of Oregon.
My weekly therapy sessions blend a variety of expressive arts activities aimed at meeting your needs — right where you are.
Let’s address stress and manage it together. Leave equipped to express your path with reduced stress and more joy. Click the button below to schedule your free consultation today.
