Art for wellbeing or art as therapy: What's the difference?

Art can say what words cannot - so why don't I call it therapy?

Photo Rachel Duffield Creative Reset: Art Life Journalling 2026

Short answer: I'm not a trained therapist!

My professional experience is in teaching, coaching, supporting and guiding, which I've been doing, one way or another, for 25 years. Emphasising the process rather than the outcome in my art classes, alongside offering a warm, welcoming, safe space, is what gives them their wellbeing focus. So, art as therapy, or art as wellbeing- what IS the difference?

Art Therapy is a whole different ball game.

Some experiences are difficult to explain. Grief, trauma, shame, fear, chronic illness, and loss can sit in the body as much as in language. For some people, speaking directly about painful events feels impossible or unsafe. Others may not have the words for what they feel.

This is where art therapy can be especially helpful. For clarity, while all my art clubs and classes are welcoming, supportive and inclusive environments, they are not, and do not replace, professional therapy.

Art therapy is a structured therapeutic approach delivered by trained professionals. It uses creative processes to support emotional expression, self-understanding, and healing. The goal is not to make beautiful art. The goal is to explore experience in a way that feels manageable.

In art therapy, a person might work with paint, clay, collage, drawing, movement, music, drama, or other creative forms. The artwork can act as a bridge between inner experience and outward expression. It gives emotions a visible or sensory form, which can make them easier to notice, hold, and discuss.

For trauma survivors, this can matter deeply. Trauma can affect memory, speech, body awareness, and the ability to feel safe. Words may arrive too quickly, too intensely, or not at all. Creative work can offer distance. A colour, image, shape, rhythm, or character can represent something painful without forcing the person to describe every detail.

Art can create a safer middle ground between silence and speech.

This does not mean art therapy is always easy. Strong feelings can arise. That is why trauma-informed support is important. A skilled therapist helps pace the work, build safety, and avoid overwhelming the person.

Creative expression can also help outside formal therapy, though it should not be used as a substitute when clinical care is needed.

And this is where my work comes in, sitting at the point where art meets wellbeing. Journalling, drawing, sketching, and being creative in the company of others in my classes can help people process ordinary stress, transitions, and emotion.

For example, some of the prompts in my Creative Reset: Art Life Journalling course align with gentle ways to think about feelings, such as:

• Choose a colour for how the day feels

• Draw the weather inside your body

• Make a playlist for a difficult emotion

• Shape worry out of clay or paper

  
  

These practices can make emotions less vague. They help people notice patterns and needs. They can also build confidence, because expression becomes possible in more than one language.

Being creative in the company of others amplifies all these benefits, too.

My CIC, Community Art Clubs, is equally about community and art, and, with loneliness often being at the root of physical health issues such as depression, inflammation (leading to heart problems), and cognitive decline, what could be more vital than a local place to drop in, make friends and make art?

If you'd like to make art and make friends, why not come along to one of my Community Art Clubs? They run Sept - July at various locations in Norfolk, UK. Dates and times are published tri-monthly on our Facebook page, and you can DM or email me for details any time.

Rachel Duffield is the Founder of Community Art Clubs CIC. Her podcast Art is Good For You is available on YouTube & Spotify. Her signature course 'Creative Reset: Art Life Journalling' runs twice yearly and information about this, and her partnership working with and for museum, gallery and school communities can be found here on her website. You can contact Rachel on WhatsApp 07943476788, via email rachelduffieldart@gmail.com or by DM on Facebook.