Art Therapy Exercises: Using the Face

Collaged faces showing emotions.

The face shows joy, sorrow, shame, pain, anxiety and many more human emotions. Our facial expressions can be flexible, controlled, masked or revealing. We sometimes have an open face and sometimes not. Our face can show flashes of our fresh thinking, openness, and sometimes we need to shut down, rein in our facial expressions for safety, or because we are not ready to show all and sometimes because we aren't sure.

In Art Therapy work I do a lot of exercises using the face. Sometimes clients paint their face, collage faces, make masks, etc. Sometimes it is to play with how they think others see them or to explore their inner and outer self-expression. Sometimes clients paint or collage their many faces such as, their face of contentment, joy, shame, sorrow, fear, grief, etc. There is a unique psychological shift that takes place when you look into your own eyes and face and paint your own portrait. Your own face suddenly becomes a mirror to your soul, the real you.