June is PTSD Awareness Month
4th June 2025
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder doesn’t follow a script. It doesn’t begin and end cleanly, and it doesn’t affect only one type of person. It shows up in veterans, yes, but also in first responders, survivors of domestic violence, medical professionals, and countless others whose lives have been marked by sustained or sudden trauma. Often, it reshapes daily experience quietly, through heightened vigilance, fractured sleep, trouble focusing, or a general sense of disconnection. Its presence isn’t always visible, but it is persistent.
June, as PTSD Awareness Month, offers a chance not only to recognise how widespread trauma is, but also to consider how healing actually happens. There is no single method. Talk therapy may help some people process what’s happened and find language for their experiences. For others, that process is more complicated. Trauma can exist beneath language, encoded in images, sensed rather than understood.
This is where art therapy can be helpful offering an alternative entry point. Instead of requiring someone to speak about their experience, it allows them to express it physically and visually. The goal isn’t to interpret or analyse what’s produced, but to use the act of creating as a way to access, externalise, and work through what might otherwise remain internal and unresolved.
Increasingly, art therapy is being used not as a stand-alone treatment but as part of an integrated approach to psychological care. It can function as an adjunct to talk therapy, especially when clients are overwhelmed, stuck, or finding it difficult to engage verbally. In trauma-focused therapies like EMDR, somatic experiencing, or cognitive processing therapy, art-making can complement the work by providing an outlet for reflection, grounding, or bridging between sessions. In some treatment plans, art therapy and psychological therapy are fully blended, allowing for flexible pacing and a more nuanced response to how trauma manifests.
For people living with PTSD, that kind of flexibility can make a difference especially when previous attempts to seek help haven’t led to meaningful progress. Art therapy provides a space that isn’t dependent on verbal clarity, while still supporting psychological change. Over time, it can evolve into a way of bridging past experiences with a developing new worldview, helping individuals hold both where they’ve been and where they want to go.
PTSD Awareness Month is not only about understanding symptoms, but about expanding the range of supports we recognise as valid and effective. Art therapy is one of those supports.
If you're looking for a gentle way to engage with your own healing or support someone else's, Walk & Make offers a space to move toward recovery through creative practice.
Extra reading if you’re keen!
Kalthom, M., Nazeri, A., & Faramarzi, S. (2025). The effectiveness of self-narrative art therapy in reducing PTSD symptoms among war-affected Syrian children. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 18(1), 209–216.
Karci, A. T., & Ozel, Y. (2024). The therapeutic power of creativity: The role of art therapy in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. Journal of Health, Medicine and Nursing, 10(6), 11–22.
Malchiodi, C. A. (2022). Trauma and expressive arts therapy: Brain, body, and imagination in the healing process. The Guilford Press.
Schnitzer, G., Holttum, S., & Huet, V. (2021). A systematic literature review of the impact of art therapy upon post-traumatic stress disorder. International Journal of Art Therapy, 26(4), 147–160.
Schouten, K. A., van Hooren, S., Knipscheer, J. W., Kleber, R. J., & Hutschemaekers, G. J. M. (2019). Trauma-focused art therapy in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder: A pilot study. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 20(1), 114–130.
Wang, J., Zhang, B., Yahaya, R., & Abdullah, A. B. (2025). Colors of the mind: A meta-analysis of creative arts therapy as an approach for post-traumatic stress disorder intervention. BMC Psychology, 13(1), Article 32.