Anxiety art therapy worksheets

If you’re a therapist looking for anxiety art therapy worksheets, you’re in the right place.

This article provides an overview of anxiety art therapy worksheets and includes sample art therapy activities such as the mask activity therapy exercise.

We’ve also included a free downloadable anxiety art therapy worksheet to save to your electronic health record (EHR) and use in your practice.

What is art therapy?

Art therapists are formally trained and credentialed mental health clinicians who support clients of all ages and backgrounds, including: 

• Children and adolescents

• People who have experienced trauma and those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

• Individuals with experience of grief and loss

• People with autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

• Adults, children, and adolescents with anxiety, depression, or chronic physical or mental health conditions

Art therapy is also helpful in assisting caregivers, survivors of violence, older adults with dementia, and people who are struggling to cope with life-related stressors and challenges. 

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How does art therapy work?

According to the American Art Therapy Association, art therapy is a mental health profession that “enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship.”

You don’t have to be an artist or have creative skills to participate in art therapy or use anxiety art therapy worksheets. Anyone can make art and be creative. Art therapy aims to help individuals grow and change by using different artistic materials in a safe environment. 

In art therapy, clinicians may encourage their clients to try different activities using different types of visual media, like painting, clay, dancing, drama, and collage materials. The therapist might suggest different activities (like of the examples we’ve listed below), including a mask activity therapy, doodling, or giving you specific instructions to draw or paint something. 

Art therapy has many benefits, including: 

• Creative expression: Art can be a helpful medium for expressing yourself without words, especially for people who struggle to verbalize their thoughts and emotions. Creative expression can also be a supportive way to process a crisis.

• Increased self-awareness: Art therapy activities allow clients to reflect and gain insights by interpreting their artwork.

• Stress relief: Using anxiety art therapy worksheets can be calming and grounding, providing emotional regulation and relieving symptoms of stress, depression, and anxiety.  

• Helps to resolve internal conflicts: Art therapy helps to externalise thoughts and feelings that may be too painful to put into words. The artwork creates distance between the emotion, making it easier to reflect on and reframe with a therapist. 

Research shows that art therapy can help people feel more in control of their lives and  alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression in people with cancer, chronic medical conditions, and veterans with PTSD. 

Example art therapy exercises

There are many art therapy activities, including: 

1. Mask activity therapy 

Also called inside-outside mask art therapy, the mask activity therapy exercise helps clients explore identity, emotions, expression, and internal conflict by illustrating a mask that is presented to the world and their internal mask. 

The mask activity therapy exercise  involves creating a mask from available materials, such as clay, tissue paper, and papier mache. 

2. Feelings collage 

This activity offers a way to externalize overwhelming feelings and anxiety-related emotions. You can use old magazines, pictures, tape, stickers, and other media to create a collage of  feelings. 

The therapist might ask their client to reflect on what stands out, what the collage represents, and any other insights gained.

3. Color your mood

This exercise involves assigning an emotion and color to sections of a pie chart. The sections and colors should represent the person’s mood. Therapists and clients can track how the chart changes over time to monitor their emotional state. 

4. Drawing a safe place

This exercise helps build an inner sense of safety by creating a place where you feel safe and calm. The place can be real or imagined. 

Clients might reflect on what they see, hear, smell, or feel there. The image can be used as a coping strategy during stressful moments. 

5. Coat of arms

While not exclusively an art therapy activity, the coat of arms activity may be used by art therapists to explore identity, values, personal strengths, and emotional experiences. It encourages self-reflection and may help with building self-esteem. 

The sections could illustrate strengths or values, hopes for the future, an inspirational motto or phrase, life challenges, and support systems or inspirational people.

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How to use the anxiety art therapy worksheets

You can download and use the anxiety art therapy worksheets in several ways.

For instance, print the worksheets and leave them in the office to use in sessions or use the mask worksheet in a session with a client as part of therapy.

Provide the anxiety art therapy worksheets to the client to remind them of what you discussed during therapy. Then, ask the client to complete the mask activity therapy exercise between sessions when experiencing anxiety and report their progress at their next therapy appointment. 

You can also use the printable mask activity therapy worksheet as an exercise in group therapy.

Lastly, consider sharing the anxiety art therapy worksheets with coworkers and supervisees.

Sources

• Art Therapy Association. (n.d.). What is Art Therapy?

• Cheng, C., Elamin, M. E., May, H., & Kennedy, M. (2023). Drawing on emotions: the evolving role of art therapy. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine..

• Shukla, A., Choudhari, S. G., Gaidhane, A. M., & Quazi Syed, Z. (2022). Role of Art Therapy in the Promotion of Mental Health: A Critical Review. Cureus. 

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