Mental Health Drawing Ideas: Creative Therapy
I am not a talented artist. (This is an understatement!) And yet, I have used art successfully to improve my wellbeing.
I’m a clinical psychologist and I also frequently encourage drawing in therapy sessions when the teens I work with choose to. It helps them express and process their feelings.
Thanks to those young people, I have a “brain full” of amazingly effective mental health drawing ideas which I am going to share with you!
You don’t need to be “good at art” for drawing to help your wellbeing and promote mental health awareness. The point isn’t a perfect picture, it’s what happens while you’re making it. Mental health matters.
When you (or your child) put feelings on paper, it can be easier to notice them, sit with them, and make sense of them. That’s why mental health drawing often shows up in therapy work with children and teens. It gives them a safer way to express things that feel too big, too mixed up, or too hard to say out loud.
Below are practical, teen-friendly ideas you can try at home. Why not start a tradition in your family in honour of World Mental Health Day (10th October)… or indeed at any time of year!
Why drawing can help your mental health
Drawing can support emotional wellbeing in a few simple, reliable ways:
- It helps you express feelings you can’t yet say. If the words won’t come, an image can be a starting point.
- It can release bottled-up feelings. Putting worry, anger, sadness, or stress on the page can bring relief.
- It can calm your body. Repetitive, focused creative work can be soothing for the nervous system.
- It can bring a flow state. You might get fully absorbed, which is part of a ‘state of flow’. This can feel settling and quiet.
Creative work encourages positive thinking and emotional expression.
This is where art therapy and creativity for mental well being can be so helpful, it supports emotion regulation without putting pressure on you to “find the right words”.
Drawing is a simple form of self care for both adults and teens. You can sketch, doodle, colour, paint, or use an app. There isn’t a correct way to do it. You’re aiming for honesty, not a gallery-worthy result.
Quick list: mental health drawing ideas
| Mental health drawing idea | What you do |
|---|---|
| 1. Draw your mind | Show what your mind feels like using a metaphor (a storm, a maze, a messy room), perhaps with a continuous line drawing technique. |
| 2. Draw your journey (past or future) | Map what you’ve been through, or what’s ahead, like a path or road. |
| 3. Draw your friendship or family network | Sketch your key relationships, including closeness and tension; use a mental health icon to represent specific feelings. |
| 4. Draw your strengths as characters | Turn your strengths into characters with names, powers, and personalities. |
| 5. Draw your fears as characters | Give fears a shape, so you can look at them from a safer distance. |
| 6. Imagine your future self | Create an image of the person you want to become. |
| 7. Imagine your calm or happy place | Draw a place that helps you feel safe, steady, or joyful. |
| 8. Create a collage of things you are grateful for | Build a page of images and words that remind you what’s going well. |
| 9. Colouring | Use colouring to settle your mind and focus on the present moment. |
| 10. Free drawing in an art journal | Ideal for starting an art journal; make a regular space for whatever needs to come out, without rules. |
TAKE THE QUIZ!
1. Draw your mind
Begin with a mental health drawing of what your mind feels like right now, using a picture that fits. A helpful starting point can be a human head silhouette. It might look like:
- a vast ocean
- a busy road system
- a cracked phone screen
- an overgrown garden
Some people draw their mind as a locked room when they feel stuck. Others sketch a messy library, with negative emotions scattered like piles of books. The image does not have to be pretty; it just has to feel true.
Once you have drawn it, you can reflect:
- From a psychology perspective, what parts feel most crowded or intense?
- What is taking up the most space?
- If you wanted it to feel better, what would change first?
This mental health drawing exercise helps the mental health brain process complex thoughts; it can also help you spot difficult emotions and notice any strengths or calmer areas that still exist.
2. Draw your journey (past or future)
Draw your life as a journey. This works well if you’ve had a hard patch and you forget how far you’ve come.
You can show:
- steep hills for tough periods
- fallen trees for setbacks like depression
- bridges for support you received
- open fields for easier seasons
You can also draw a future path. If the year ahead looks challenging, you might mark:
- which months could be hardest
- what might trigger stress
- what support could help at each stage
Seeing it on paper can remind you that you’ve survived difficult parts before, and you can plan for the next ones. This journey mapping is a form of mindfulness that helps individuals stay grounded in their progress.
3. Draw your friendship or family network
Create a simple map of the important people in your (or your child’s) life. Use shapes, symbols, or colours.
Try this:
- Put yourself in the centre, perhaps using a mental health icon to represent you or key figures.
- Add family, friends, school contacts, and other key people around you.
- Use lines to show closeness (thicker lines for strong bonds, such as mental health support).
- Use dotted or wavy lines for relationships that feel unsure, distant, or strained.
This can make relationship psychology patterns easier to understand. It can also help you work out where support is strong, where you need boundaries, and where repair might be possible.
4. Draw your strengths as characters
Turn your strengths into characters, then draw them.
For example:
- your courage might be a quiet protector
- your humour might be a cheeky sidekick
- your kindness might be a gentle giant
- your persistence might be a determined climber
If you’re dealing with low self-esteem, this can help you notice what’s already there, even if it feels small. This character-based exercise is particularly effective for mental health kids.
You can give each character:
- a name
- a special skill
- a phrase they say when you’re struggling
This makes your strengths feel more real and easier to call on.
5. Draw your fears as characters
Fears can feel overwhelming when they stay vague. Drawing them gives them edges.
You can sketch fear as:
- a shadow in the corner
- a tangled knot
- a loud creature that takes up too much space
This links to a therapy idea called “externalising”, often used in the treatment of mental disorders like depression. It means placing the problem outside yourself so symptoms feel less personal and more manageable.
You can then add detail:
- What does this fear want you to do?
- What makes it bigger?
- What makes it shrink?
This is a gentle way to stop avoiding fear, and start understanding it.
6. Imagine your future self
Draw the “future you” you want to grow into. You might focus on someone who is:
- calmer
- more confident
- more connected
- more independent
You can draw a portrait, a stick figure diagram, or even symbols, like a backpack filled with skills. The goal is to make your hopes visible, so they feel more possible.
Visualising a future self is often a component of psychotherapy to help teens build a sense of agency and direction. This can be motivating for teens, especially when daily life feels repetitive or heavy.
7. Imagine your calm or happy place
Especially during Mental Health Awareness Month, when people often reflect on their safe spaces and emotional needs, create a picture of a place that helps you feel safe and settled. It can be real or made up.
Ideas include:
- a beach at sunset
- a cosy bed corner with books
- a forest path
- a treehouse
- a room designed just for you
As you draw, you’re practising shifting attention away from stress and towards safety. When it’s finished, keep it somewhere you can see easily, so it can act as a reminder on hard days.
8. Create a collage of things you are grateful for
A gratitude collage, ideal for World Mental Health Day celebrations or activities, helps you notice what’s going right, even when life feels messy. Research suggests that practising gratitude can reduce negative feelings and support wellbeing, helping to balance out negative emotions during stressful periods.
You can include:
- photos of people you care about
- words that describe good moments
- ticket stubs or small reminders
- drawings of simple comforts (hot chocolate, your pet, a favourite game)
Look at it regularly, especially during tougher weeks. It can support hope, and help you keep a wider view.
9. Colouring
Colouring may be a simple form of mental health drawing, but it can work so well as a mental health, brain settling activity after a long day. The colours you choose can reflect your mood, without needing to explain it.
This type of mental health drawing can also help you drop into that focused, absorbed state that promotes mindfulness by concentrating on the present moment, giving your brain a break. Creative activities like this can support children’s wellbeing too, including benefits for their mental health.
If you’re supporting kids or teens, keep it low-pressure as a mental health drawing activity. Offer a few pens or pencils, and let them choose what feels right.
10. Free drawing in an art journal
An art journal is a private space where anything can go. You can draw:
- scribbles that match a bad day
- shapes and patterns when you feel restless
- small sketches of good moments
- random doodles with no meaning at all
Over time, your art journal pages become a visual record of how you’ve been feeling. When you look back, you may start to notice patterns, triggers, and what helps.
This art journal habit is one of the simplest ways to build a steady practice of personal art therapy that supports your own mental health awareness by tracking emotional patterns over time, all from home.
Professional support can help
Drawing can be a strong tool for self-understanding, but sometimes you need more than self-help, such as psychological help or mental health support.
An art therapist (or a clinical psychologist who provides mental health treatment using creative methods) can help you make sense of what’s coming up through psychology. If your drawings keep turning very dark, or they leave you feeling frightened or unsafe, or if you are struggling with depression, that’s a sign to reach out for professional psychotherapy. Start by speaking to your doctor.
Final thoughts
Words matter, but pictures can say things words can’t. You can use mental health drawing to understand your inner world better, without needing to be “artistic”.
Mental health awareness starts with individual self care, and mental health matters every day. Try one idea with mental health drawing, keep it simple, and focus on the process. Small, regular creative moments can make a real difference.
Dr Lucy Russell is a UK clinical psychologist and Clinical Director of Everlief Child Psychology. She qualified as a clinical psychologist from Oxford University in 2005 and worked in the National Health Service for many years before moving fully into her leadership and writing roles.
In 2019 Lucy launched They Are The Future, a support website for parents of school-aged children. Through TATF Lucy is passionate about giving practical, manageable strategies to parents and children who may otherwise struggle to find the support they need.
Lucy lives with her family, rescue cats and dog, and also fosters cats through a local animal welfare charity. She loves singing in a vocal harmony group and spending time in nature.
