Art therapy is effective for trauma survivors… because it provides a path where none existed previously That is, because these traumatic memories exists in imagery alone, the art offers a gateway by which the individual can begin to reprocess the trauma and place the fragmented memories into a more narrative form.
Art supports the process of reintegrating this newly constructed trauma narrative into past, present and future life experiences. This is vital as traumatic memories that are not integrated back into consciousness, can continue to trigger conditioned responses of arousal and disassociation.
Without the historical context surrounding this trauma narrative, individuals will continue to experience the intrusive symptoms of these traumatic memories that seem to signal that the trauma is happening now or will happen again at any time.
We do a lot of that, along with music and animal therapy where I work :).