Your Brain on Creativity

Have you ever considered what’s unfolding in your brain as you create art? An art therapy experience engages far more than creativity alone — it activates deep emotional and cognitive processes.

Engaging with art in art therapy transcends the sensory experience. It taps deeply into emotional expression, self-discovery, and cognitive processing. Through creating art, individuals access feelings and thoughts that might be difficult to verbalize, allowing healing and insight on multiple levels. During art therapy we are also actively exploring who we are as beings, our relationships to others, and the world around us, all while being supported in a therapeutic relationship. Making art in this way, activates an area of the brain known as the Default Mode Network (DMN). This network is involved with introspective thought, self-awareness and memory. When the DMN lights up during art-making we’re not just seeing or hearing—we’re feeling, remembering, and meaning-making (Magsamen & Ross, 2023; Weir, 2025).

As a result, art moves beyond the perception of lines, shapes, colours, or sounds to also include personal meaning. Art shapes our thoughts, emotions and identity weaving together percepetion, memory, and self-awareness. The art therapeutic process offers a powerful space to cultivate empathy, restore and deepen social bonds, and facilitate cross-cultural understanding—laying the groundwork for enduring transformation (Weir, 2025).

When we consider what’s happening in the brain during the act of making art, we’re also entering the fascinating and complex world of neuroscience and more specifically, neuroaesthetics. It is inside the field of neuroaesthetics where scientists explore how the brain functions during artistic expression. Neuroscience has shown that our brains are capable of learning, adapting, and changing throughout our lives—a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity.

You can think of neuroplasticity as the way your brain builds and rewires its connections as you learn and experience new things.

Over the course of a lifetime, new experiences, relationships, ideas, behaviours, and information continuously shape both our lives and our brains—either strengthening or diminishing our capacity to cope with challenges and connect with others in our communities (Hass-Cohen & Findlay, 2015).

Participating in art therapy reminds us how resilient we really are, and how capable we are of healing and growing. When we take part in new and meaningful experiences, it can lead to positive changes in the brain. On the other hand, ongoing stress has been linked to serious health risks (Magsamen & Ross, 2023).

"Through music, theater, literature, visual arts, and more, our species has surrounded itself with the arts. Those aesthetic experiences can improve health and well-being in a dazzling variety of ways, as described in a recent World Health Organization report. Art therapy and engagement with the arts have been shown to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, ease pain, help people heal from trauma, protect against cognitive decline, and enhance social cohesion, among other benefits. Listening to music can promote language development in children and foster new neural pathways in adults after a stroke. In people with neurological disorders like Parkinson’s disease, dance has been found to improve balance and functional mobility" (Fancourt & Finn, 2019).

Taking part in the arts is like a fun workout for the brain—it can change how we feel, support our mental health, and physiologically shape the way our brain works.

When art is made with the support of a trained art therapist, the guided art reflective process has the opportunity to create life long integration and foster overall wellbeing. Here are some of the numerous health benefits you may gain from taking part in art therapy.

• Helps You Feel Calmer: Making art can be a relaxing, mindful activity that lowers stress and eases anxiety.

• Boosts Your Mood: Creative activities activate the brain’s feel-good centers, helping you feel happier and more motivated.

• Builds Self-Understanding: Art can help you explore your thoughts and feelings, leading to better self-esteem.

• Supports Coping Skills: Creating art with the support of an art therapist, provides healthy ways to deal with tough emotions and life changes.

• Helps You Find Meaning: Art can open new ways of thinking and help you make sense of your life experiences.

Taking part in art therapy helps calm our nervous system by engaging our whole sensory system (Canadian Art Therapy Association, 2025), it boosts our ability to handle life’s challenges, reduces stress hormones, strengthens our immune system, and builds our inner strength to manage everyday ups and downs—even when emotions feel tough.

All this is to say, that what is happening in our brains while making art, is also creating a response in our entire being!

Even something as simple as colouring can help soothe the amygdala—the part of the brain that triggers our stress response (Magsamen & Ross, 2023). While the science behind art-making is complex, the message is simple: making art is healing—especially when guided by a qualified art therapist who can support you on your journey.

Art therapists are specially trained to help people find their voice and reconnect with their true selves—and that kind of support can make all the difference.

If you’re curious to learn more about art therapy and how I can support your well-being through a guided, art therapeutic process, feel free to reach out.

You can book a free 15-minute consultation by emailing me at fourriverstherapy@outlook.com.

Krista Powers, DKATI, BASC, CPHIc, BKINSC

Professional Art Therapist, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)

Art therapists are trained professionals with unique therapeutic skills and expertise in counselling psychology and fine arts. In Canada and the United States, art therapists must have at minimum a master's degree or a master's level graduate diploma in art therapy before identifying themselves within the profession. This graduate level education includes supervised clinical practicum hours (700 hours for Canadian art therapists), thus ensuring the safety of the client as well as professional liability for agencies and employers offering this form of therapy (Canadian Art Therapy Association, 2025).

References:

• Canadian Art Therapy Association, (2025). The voice of art therapy: Art therapy for trauma recovery.   https://www.canadianarttherapy.org/

• Hass-Cohen, Noah & Findlay, Joanna Clyde (2015). Art therapy and the neuroscience of relationships, creativity, & resiliency: Skills and practices, W.W. Norton & Company.

• Fancourt, Daisy & Saoirse, Finn (2019). What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being? A scoping review. https://iris.who.int/server/api/core/bitstreams/e1cc8536-773d-446f-9822-8ae376f41415/content

• Magsamen, Susan & Ross, Ivy (2023). Your brain on art. Random House.

• Weir, Kirsten (September 1, 2025). What happens in the brain when we experience art: How to unleash the power of neuroasethetics for health, wellbeing and social change. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2025/09/art-mind-brain?mc_cid=fa2d711f47&mc_eid=827f67eb4d