Art Therapy · Biddeford, Maine
When words run out, there's another way in
Some of what drives addiction, trauma, grief, shame, is stored beyond the reach of conversation. Art therapy gives those experiences another way out: through color, shape, and image, with a trained clinician guiding the process. No talent required.
No skill needed · Part of PHP & IOP · MaineCare accepted
Accredited & Licensed
LegitScript Certified
Joint Commission Accredited
Maine DHHS Licensed
Psychology Today Verified
Why art
The brain stores trauma in images, not sentences
Talk therapy is powerful, but it depends on being able to put things into words. Traumatic memory doesn't work that way. It lives in sensation, image, and feeling. That's why a client can say "I'm fine" in a session while their hands are shaking.
Art therapy works with the parts of experience that language can't reach. Drawing, painting, collage, and sculpture engage the brain's visual and sensory pathways directly, letting what's stuck come out sideways, safely, at your pace, with a clinician who knows how to help you make sense of what appears on the page.
It's also honest. People who are skilled at saying the right thing in therapy, and many people with addiction are, can't perform their way through a blank canvas. The image tells the truth, and that gives your treatment team something real to work with.
Medically reviewed
Benjamin Crocker, MD
Psychiatrist · Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Tufts University School of Medicine · MD, The Ohio State University · Residency & fellowship training at the University of Michigan and LAC+USC Medical Center
Last reviewed August 2026. Read our editorial standards & clinical review process
What art therapy helps with
More than arts and crafts
Trauma & PTSD
Process painful memories without having to narrate them. Externalizing an image creates safe distance, you look at it instead of reliving it.
Shame & self-image
Addiction distorts how people see themselves. Creating and re-creating self-directed images helps rebuild an identity beyond 'addict.'
Emotional regulation
The act of making art lowers physiological stress. Clients learn a healthy, always-available way to move through intense emotion.
Grief & loss
Losses that were numbed for years can finally be honored and expressed, without needing the 'right words' that don't exist.
Anxiety & rumination
Focused creative work interrupts spiraling thoughts the same way mindfulness does, through attention, not force.
A sober identity
Making something, anything, rebuilds the sense that you can create rather than destroy. That matters more than it sounds.
What a session is like
No easels judged. No grades given.
Sessions at our Biddeford center are relaxed and guided. A clinician offers a prompt, sometimes open, sometimes specific to your treatment goals, and you work with whatever materials suit you. Then, if you want, you talk about what came up. The meaning is always yours; the therapist helps you find it, never assigns it.
Art therapy is one thread in a complete program. It sits alongside individual counseling, group therapy, CBT, DBT, and mindfulness within our PHP and IOP schedules, different doors into the same healing, so every client can find the one that opens for them.
Insurance
In-network with almost every plan.
Portland Treatment is in-network with Anthem, UMR/UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Harvard Pilgrim, Martin's Point, TRICARE and MaineCare, Cigna is our only out-of-network plan. In-network means contracted rates, lower coinsurance and no balance bill. We verify your benefits free, in minutes, with no obligation.
Free, confidential, no obligation
Or read the coverage guide for your plan, Anthem rehab coverage, Cigna rehab coverage, MaineCare rehab coverage and other accepted insurance plans.
Questions
Art therapy, answered
I'm not artistic at all. Can I still do art therapy?+
Yes, most clients aren't artists. Art therapy is about expression, not skill or aesthetics. There's no judging, no critique, and no expectation that anything looks 'good.' Stick figures count.
Is art therapy real therapy?+
Yes. Art therapy is a licensed clinical discipline used in hospitals and treatment centers worldwide, with a research base in trauma, addiction, and mental health. At Portland Treatment it's facilitated within your treatment plan by trained clinicians.
Will I have to share or explain my artwork?+
Only if you want to. Sharing and discussing your work is always your choice, and the meaning of what you create is yours, a therapist helps you explore it, never tells you what it means.
Is art therapy covered by insurance or MaineCare?+
It's part of our PHP and IOP programming, which is covered by MaineCare and most major insurance plans, and we're in-network with all of them except Cigna. Verify your benefits free at 855-449-7674 with no obligation.
Where do art therapy sessions take place?+
At our outpatient center in Biddeford, Maine, serving clients from Portland, Saco, Old Orchard Beach, South Portland, Scarborough, Westbrook, Kennebunk, and Sanford.
Keep exploring
Related care at Portland Treatment
Levels of care
- Partial hospitalization program (PHP) in Biddeford
Our most structured day treatment, five days a week, home each night.
- Intensive outpatient program (IOP) in Southern Maine
Nine-plus clinical hours a week with day and evening tracks.
- Virtual IOP for anywhere in Maine
The same IOP curriculum by secure telehealth, statewide.
- Outpatient program (OP) for ongoing recovery
One to two sessions a week that fit around work and family.
How we treat
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
Practical tools for the thoughts that drive use and relapse.
- Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)
Distress tolerance and emotion regulation skills that hold up.
- Individual therapy in Biddeford
One-on-one counseling with the same clinician each week.
- Group therapy sessions
Small clinician-led groups with people in the same fight.
Where we serve
- Addiction treatment in Biddeford, Maine
Our home clinic, in the mill district off Route 111.
- Addiction treatment for Portland, Maine
A 20-minute drive down I-95 from the Portland peninsula.
- Addiction treatment for Saco, Maine
Minutes across the river from our Biddeford clinic.
- All Southern Maine areas we serve
Every city and town within driving distance of Biddeford.
Some things can't be said out loud yet.
Say them another way. We'll listen.
855-449-7674Answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Free and confidential.