July 28, 2025
by Karen Hanlon
While art therapy works everywhere, making it successful means respecting local cultures and adapting to what works in each place.
I’ve seen this flexibility work when I’m with different groups. The basic process stays the same:
- Create a quiet, safe space.
- Encourage expression without judgment use multiple senses.
- Provide time to contemplate & reflect about what happened.
But how you actually do this can also honor local customs, use traditional music or scents, and respect cultural rules about showing emotions.
A Canvas for Healing Everywhere
Art Therapy allow us to express & channel emotion through creativity that is uniquely ours.
Art therapy offers something really valuable: it honors everyone’s natural creativity and inner wisdom. When someone creates something with their hands, guided by their feelings and gut instincts, they’re taking back their power as someone who creates rather than just receives care.
Initiatives like The 34 Gallery show a big shift in how we think about mental health. Instead of trying to force traditional therapy models everywhere, we’re recognizing that healing happens when people feel safe to explore their inner world through ways that make sense in their culture and are easy to access.
As we face mental health challenges like never before around the world, Simuka Africa reminds us that solutions don’t have to be complicated to work. Sometimes the most powerful healing happens when we simply make space for people to express themselves for real, without judgment or expectations.
Real Change Through Creative Solutions
The Painting Your Soul kits I’ve created have the core pieces—guided meditation, painting supplies, journal prompts, and sensory experiences—but the beautiful thing is how these tools can be changed to honor local traditions, languages, and ways of expressing feelings.
For this reason, I was invited to speak at the 2024 Global Woman Summit in London. We also made a group art piece there—where women from different countries each added their own brushstrokes to one shared canvas—showed this perfectly. Each stroke was totally unique, but together they created something more powerful than anything one person could make alone.
The Creative Invitation
Art Therapy classes are a great way to get to know ourselves while connecting with others.
Every person has something to express, and when we give them the tools and space for that expression, healing just naturally happens.
In a world that often focuses on how we’re different, creative expression shows us how we’re the same.
The canvas welcomes everyone—no matter your age, background, language, or whether you think you can make art.
Whether you are in a rural village or a big city and dealing with personal trauma or community hardship, the invitation is the same:
- Pick up a brush.
- Open your heart.
- Let your soul speak through color.
In that moment of creating, barriers disappear, healing starts, and hope shows up—one brushstroke at a time.
Through partnerships with Initiatives like The 34 Gallery, we’re not just tackling mental health challenges. We’re saying that everyone deserves creative expression, emotional wellness, and the deep healing that happens when art becomes a bridge to who we really are.