Sensory aspects of art therapy work with clay

In the therapeutic use of modelling from clay, effective factors of multisensory therapeutic approaches overlap with the principles and processes of art therapy. Clay as a medium offers various sensory stimuli, including dispersed touch, temperature and smell. These inputs may serve as triggers for memories or emotional associations and as means of change. Art therapy can intentionally work with the sensory qualities of the material realizing their potential in art-therapeutic creation. This qualitative study explores the sensory characteristics of clay as art-therapeutic medium and provides an analysis of effective factors of clay modelling in art therapy through a case study report. Thanks to its sensory specifics, clay helps to process emotions of fear, to eliminate aggressive behaviours and to create space for the change in attitudes towards oneself and other people.
The paper is part of the outcomes of the VEGA project no. 1/0598/17 Evaluation of the effective factors of multisensory approaches in therapeutic education