Why Talking About Trauma Isn't Always Enough: How Expressive Arts Therapy Helps Heal Trauma

Have you ever been to therapy before and found yourself completely stuck. Stuck not knowing what to say, how to say it, or maybe feeling lost for the right way to describe your experiences. In traditional talk therapy trauma can come up in a way that makes it difficult to explain the past and oftentimes we feel like, Why isn’t this working? I should be able to talk about this. Why is nothing coming out? Trauma can affect how we experience memories, emotions, and language. Yep, that’s right sometimes it literally affects the part of our brain where we communicate. The way that we process experiences is vast and words only account for a tiny fraction of that. Expressive arts therapy offers another way to process trauma when words feel out of reach.

Why Trauma Can Be Difficult to Put Into Words

Trauma can affect memory

Trauma can impact our memories. Trauma might show up in our memories more pronounced where we experience flashbacks to specific events or it might completely shut down the experiences. Maybe we don’t remember anything and that can cause a lot of confusion and concern as well. These memories don’t just hold the weight of everyday tasks like remembering to get milk at the store. They are felt deeep. So deep that our bodies know it more than our brain can catch up. 

Trauma can create emotional overwhelm

When these memories are held deep in our bodies it can cause emotional overwhelm when trying to discuss it. Imagine a tap that has been turned off and suddenly we release the faucet tap and water pours out of it overflowing a tub and doesn’t turn off until the entire bathroom floor is flooded. When we allow ourselves the space to talk about these things sometimes it can become so overwhelming that our emotions and bodies go into extreme anxiety and flood the system. As you can probably imagine the aftermath is exhausting and truthfully not very helpful. Our bodies and mind still don’t feel safe and now we are scared to release the tap again. 

Trauma can create numbness

While some may feel flooded others may feel completely void of their emotions altogether. Numbness is a common way that the system has dealt with trauma. It’s a way to keep the system safe. No feelings? No problems (that’s what our bodies think anyways). But being numb can make it difficult to connect to others. If we are disconnected from ourselves how do we truly nourish the relationships around us and heal?

With trauma comes shame. Shame about the experiences and shame about the aftermath. This might make it hard to discuss the trauma. Especially if we can’t recall every single detail. 

That recollection of detail isn’t necessary and doesn’t mean that the experiences weren’t real.

How Trauma Affects the Nervous System

I hinted at this earlier, but our bodies and nervous system react to trauma in different ways. The common ones that we hear of are fight, flight, freeze, and fawn. We may become ready to go up in arms when something triggers our fight response, or perhaps we run away from the dangerous stimulus, maybe we become immoveable and stay in one spot completely frozen from moving or speaking, and lastly we might jump into people pleasing tendencies to appease the aggressor. In those moments with the four fs. Our bodies are completely in instinctual overdrive. We are trying to live and get out of the situation we are in. Everything else in the brain is on the backburner. When our bodies and nervous system is focused on survival, it isn’t prioritizing organizing these memories into neatly filed narratives to remember later. Naturally these memories tied to these events may be fragmented and pieced together unevenly or even pushed so far away we forget. 

Because trauma affects more than our thoughts, healing often involves more than talking.

How Expressive Arts Therapy Complements Traditional Talk Therapy

So, if we find ourselves stuck trying to talk about the trauma, how do we move forward? 

Creativity and expression can provide a space to explore healing. This doesn’t mean that creativity completely replaces conversation, it really just provides another path for it outside of talking alone.

Creative expression and expressive arts therapy can help us notice our emotions, get connected with what our bodies are feeling, slow down, explore experiences without needing the perfect words, and build curiosity instead of judgement. Creative expression or isn’t about being an artist or having artistic talent at all. It’s a way of expressing ourselves. And this is something we do every single day. Picked a specific outfit for the day? Creative expression. Cooked a meal and enjoyed it? Creative expression. Planted a vegetable you like in your garden? Creative expression. 

What Is Expressive Arts Therapy and How Does It Work?

Now that we know creative expression and expressive arts therapy is beneficial in promoting trauma healing, what does this exactly look like?

Expressive arts therapy is the combination of two or more expressive modalities. This can be visual art like drawing, painting, or collage. It can be movement, whether this be an entirely choreographed dance recital or a simple breathe or stretch. Writing is another expressive modality. This one you probably already know of and have heard from other therapists or those in the wellness world about journaling. It can be journaling or it can be pairing one word with a visual image. Maybe it’s music. We all know the power that music can hold. I mean just go through your playlists right now. I’m sure you have one titled for a specific emotion or activity. Lastly, incorporating nature is more healing and creative than you might imagine. This is one of the most ultimate ways to slow down and notice the small things around you. Remember when you were a kid and would watch the ants or rolly pollys? We are never too old to notice the bugs and life growing around us. The goal of expressive arts therapy isn’t to create something and have a piece of artwork. No, it’s the process of creating. The meaning when we make. The emotions and thoughts we have when we explore the process. Maybe we notice our bodies start to loosen up and feel less tight or we allow our minds to wander without judgement. 

What an Expressive Arts Therapy Session Might Look Like

In session this process might look like a conversation and then we get to a stopping place. Instead of trying to push through this stuckness with language. Maybe we explore a feeling through an image. This could be from a magazine or they pick a specific color and one word to represent the emotion. Then we’ll talk about this together. You share what you feel comfortable with. The process and piece of creation becomes another way to notice patterns, emotions, and experiences. 

Another common way we might incorporate expressive arts into a therapy session is through metaphor. Therapists love metaphors. It’s a way to visualize the concepts we are talking about into something easily digestible, right? We might turn that talking metaphor into a physical metaphor. For example, we often hear the saying “we have to fill our own cup before we can pour into someone else's." Well, what does your cup look like? Is your cup a specific color or colors? What are some self-care activities that “fill your cup?” If your cup had a theme song what would it be?” 

You get the point. Putting a physical representation of what we talk about. 

And of course expressive arts therapy is at your pace. If you hate drawing  we don’t have to do that. If you love watercolor we’ll incorporate that more. 

Do I Have to Be Good at Art?

Absolutely not. You don’t need to be an artist and you don’t need to have any experience to try expressive arts therapy. Stick figures are welcome, single dots on a page are welcome, ugly scribbles are welcome. We are here to make bad art and process the feelings and sensations that come up with making it, not the end product. We can literally burn it (safely) or throw it in the trash if we want to when we’re done. Bad art is good art if it helps you explore your experiences better. 

Is Expressive Arts Therapy Evidence-Informed?

Yes! Expressive Arts Therapy, Art Therapy, and Creative Art Therapies are evidenced based forms of therapy and have multiple scientific articles citing their effectiveness for treating a variety of mental health concerns. For example, Wang et al. (2025) found that creative arts therapy was associated with significant reductions in PTSD symptoms across the studies included in their meta-analysis.  

Who Can Benefit from Expressive Arts Therapy?

Expressive arts therapy is a collaborative, experiential approach and anyone who feels that this aligns with them could benefit from this therapy approach. This includes those who find talking alone a struggle to meet therapy goals, feel disconnected from emotions, those who overthink, anyone who processes visually, and people who enjoy creativity. With that being said, Expressive Arts Therapy may not be a right fit for everyone and that’s okay too! Who might this be? Those who are wanting a very directive approach that may include homework for specific symptom management, those who need immediate stabilization and higher level of care, or those requiring a specific intervention for their presenting concern (e.g., ERP for OCD). 

Healing doesn’t always happen through talk alone and there is no one “right” way to heal. If you're curious about expressive arts therapy or you're looking for a different way to approach healing, I'd be honored to support you. I offer virtual therapy for adults across Texas and would be happy to help you explore whether this approach feels like a good fit.

References

Wang, J., Zhang, B., Yahaya, R., & Abdullah, A. (2025). Colors of the mind: A meta-analysis of creative arts therapy as an approach for post-traumatic stress disorder intervention.BMC Psychology, 13, 32. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-025-02361-4