Art Therapy Activities for Teenagers

There are many benefits of art therapy for mental health. Importantly, art therapy activities for teenagers provide teen clients a creative outlet to express themselves. 

This modality can be especially helpful with teens, who often bring a resistive attitude to therapy. 

When participating in art therapy activities for teens, clients can direct their attention toward the creative project at hand, rather than the pressure of answering questions, or discussing their feelings. These creative activities offer teen clients the opportunity to draw, paint, sculpt, model, and craft, rather than simply talk. 

Below we’ll share some of the best art therapy activities for teenagers.

Benefits of art therapy for mental health

Art therapy incorporates mindfulness, which helps teenagers focus on what’s happening in the present moment as they complete specific tasks and movements. 

Teenage clients can become preoccupied with creating artwork, giving them a tangible outlet for self-expression. Activities like painting and drawing in which the quality of the final product is subjective can offer teens the ability to relax and take a mental break from academic and social pressures. This is one of the benefits of art therapy for stress.

Conversation can be minimal during art therapy activities for teenagers, but this is OK because art itself is the avenue for processing. 

Art creation can be cathartic, often having a calming effect on teenagers and helping them regulate their emotions in session. 

Teens may even discover they’re passionate or talented about art, which encourages them to foster strong coping skills, related to artistic expression and exploration, that they can apply outside of sessions.

Including art projects among our therapy activities for teens can help therapists build better rapport with teenage clients. 

Art therapy’s indirect nature makes it more acceptable to most teens, which can make them more willing to engage with us.

This approach, when thoughtfully used over time, can produce a strong therapeutic relationship.

When engaging in art therapy activities for teenagers, we can also assess therapeutic progress as we review their artwork. By filing different drawings alongside therapy progress notes, for example, we can more easily spot patterns, resolution, and regression.

Factors in choosing the right art therapy activity

If you choose to use art therapy activities for teenagers, consider the following factors:

Music

If you’re working with quiet or oppositional teens, your sessions will likely have minimal dialogue—so use calming music to fill the silence. 

Background music can help both of you to loosen up, so ask the teen if they’d like to listen to music and if they have a genre or artist preference.

Interest 

Some teens don’t like making art. 

This may simply be a matter of preference, but it may also stem from performance anxiety. 

Take notice of the teen’s response, and share your observations or switch to a different intervention.

Direction

Some art therapy prompts are straightforward, such as “Paint a picture of a place where you feel calm,” while others need more explanation, like “We’re making origami today. These are the steps…”. 

Consider how much instruction the teen needs.

Time

Estimate how much time the artwork requires and plan accordingly. 

Assure teens they can finish projects when they return for their next therapy session.

Engagement

Decide if you’ll complete the art therapy activity, too. 

Sitting side-by-side while knitting or beading can help build rapport—as a common task is accomplished, and direct eye contact is unnecessary.

8 art therapy activities for teens

1. Card-making 

Provide the teen with blank cardstock, colored pencils, markers, and stickers. 

Tell them to think of three people who are important to them, and design a personalized card to give each one. 

Explain how completing acts of kindness takes our mind off ourselves, which lowers our stress level.

2. Decorative genograms 

Tear off a long sheet of butcher paper and tape it to the wall or table. 

Give the teen different colored markers and guide them in creating a family genogram. 

Discuss the relationships between family members and other significant details.

3. Pencil sketches 

Provide the teen with pencils, an eraser, and a sketchbook. 

Direct them to imagine a place in which they feel safe, relaxed, and completely at ease. 

Once they visualize the picture, tell them to sketch it. 

Play soft background music (i.e.instrumental or nature sounds) to add a calming effect. 

Encourage them to keep this peaceful picture by their bed to see before going to sleep at night, or by their mirror to see in the mornings before heading to school.

4. Canvas painting 

Give the teen a canvas, along with acrylic paints, brushes, and pencils.

Instruct them to paint their feelings, using bold colors for intense emotions and lighter colors for softer ones.

Process the finished artwork with them, noting the different emotions represented.

5. Scrapbooking 

Supply the teen with a small scrapbook, scrapbook paper, glue sticks, stickers, magazines, and scissors. 

Direct them in creating collages to store in the scrapbook. 

Give them topics to focus on, such as: my favorite things, my family, school life, and stress.

Process the completed pages with the teen, and invite them to bring personal photos into

future sessions that they can add to their scrapbook.

6. Paper bead jewelry 

Cut scrapbook paper into long, isosceles triangle strips (use a paper cutter for efficiency). 

Give the teen the paper strips, craft glue, wooden skewers, and an elastic cord. 

Explain to them how small, repetitive tasks—such as making beads and stringing them into jewelry—can help us de-stress. 

Show the teen how to make a paper bead: 

• Hold the wide end of the paper strip against the skewer 
• Turn the skewer while tightly pushing the paper against it
• Continue rolling the paper until the narrow opposite end appears
• Spread glue onto the end to secure the bead 

Allow five minutes for drying before gently sliding the bead off the skewer. 

Once enough beads have dried, tell the teen to string them onto the cord to form a necklace or bracelet.

7. Paper boxes 

Tell the teen it’s helpful to have a “container” to place our worries, so they don’t overwhelm us. 

Give your client computer paper, tape, and post-it notes.

Show them how to make a paper box: 

• Lay the paper on the table horizontally and make a trifold
• Unfold the trifold and then fold the left and right sides in half (they will look like open window shutters) 
• Fold the four bottom corners in 
• Press down the two strips of paper which have remained upright, smoothing them onto the folded corners 
• Flip the paper over, then fold in half 
• Using thumbs and pointer fingers, pop out the bottom of the box (this will produce a boat-like shape)
• Finally use fingers to pinch creases into the paper, forming an upright box 
• Place tape on edges where more securement is needed

Direct the teen to write each of their current worries on a separate post-it note, fold it up,

and drop it into the box. 

Once finished, ask them to pick up a worry from the box for processing. This is a great way to teach clients about what worry is.

8. Knitting 

Explain to the teen how knitting is a form of grounding—through feeling the texture of the yarn, noticing its colors, and counting its stitches. 

Supply your teen client with different types of yarn, knitting needles, and loom (if making hats). 

Show them basic knitting skills through a live personal demonstration or by directing them to watch a YouTube video. 

Guide the teen in creating a scarf or hat to keep for personal use or gift to another person.

3 mindfulness art therapy activities for teens

1. Dot mandala stones 

Choose three to five smooth stones, small enough to fit into the palm of your hand. 

Lay out paper towels and 3D puffy paint. 

Tell the teen to create a mandala pattern using dots of puffy paint. Explain to them that once dry, the raised dots will add a physical grounding effect. 

Tell them to keep the stone in their pocket to feel whenever they feel stressed.

2. Emotion color swatches 

Gather three to five paint color swatches from a hardware store, with at least three different shades on each swatch. 

Discuss with the teen how emotions come in various stages and intensities (i.e. anger can present as frustrated, annoyed, or irate).

Provide a list of feeling words and ask them to select the words that most often represent their own feelings. 

Tell the teen to write those feelings in order of severity on the paint swatches, from lightest (least severe) to darkest (most severe). 

Punch a hole in the swatches and attach them to a ring. 

Encourage the teen to think of their emotions in colors to help them better identify and communicate how they’re feeling.

3. Worry beads 

Give the teen a variety of colored and patterned beads, along with an elastic cord. 

Explain how touching the items around us (or those we’re wearing) can help us ground ourselves to the present. This has a soothing effect and helps us to relax during stressful times. 

Guide the teen in making a bracelet or necklace using the materials provided. 

Discuss how they can use the jewelry to calm down when they encounter stressful situations (i.e. touching the different sized beads while taking a test at school, noticing the various colored beads during a medical appointment).

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