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Children don’t always have words for what they feel.
Sometimes, their emotions show up instead as drawings, movement, or play. That’s where expressive arts therapybecomes such a powerful bridge between a child’s inner world and their healing.

In the Emotion Garden framework I use in therapy, feelings are imagined as plants: joy might look like a sunflower, anger like a cactus, sadness like a bluebell, and trust like an oak tree. When a child begins to see emotions as living things that can be tended — watered, pruned, or given space to grow — something beautiful happens: they begin to understand that emotions aren’t bad, they’re alive.

For example, one little girl I worked with used to draw tiny houses with no doors — a symbol of how “stuck” she felt inside. Over time, those drawings turned into blooming gardens. She started to tell me, “My rose feels happy again,” or “I need to water my trust tree.”
Through imagery and play, she learned the essential truth: feelings are messages, not mistakes.

The beauty of expressive arts therapy is that it gives children a safe, nonjudgmental way to express what words can’t yet hold.
As they create, they begin to regulate. As they symbolize, they begin to heal.

✨ How This Helps Your Child

• Turns big, overwhelming feelings into something visible and manageable

• Builds language for emotions through art and imagination

• Strengthens confidence and self-awareness

• Nurtures emotional regulation through creativity

• Helps children see that all emotions — even the messy ones — have meaning

When children are given the tools to tend their inner garden, they begin to bloom in ways that reach far beyond the therapy room.

By Dr. Tam, The Children’s Brain Doctor