Healing Avoidant Attachment with Art
- heatherkaystanfield
- Dec 12, 2025
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 12, 2025
Art can be a powerful resource for people struggling with Avoidant Attachment Style or avoidant behaviors. It provides a non-verbal means of communication that can be appropriate for those who struggle with identifying or expressing emotion. By analyzing the subject, color, shapes, and symbolism utilized in their artwork, avoidant attachers can better understand their own emotions and begin to regulate them.
What is Avoidant Attachment?
Avoidant Attachment Style is a type of insecure attachment style, or behavior pattern that values independence and avoids emotional closeness.
Although many people exhibit avoidant behaviors, Dismissive-Avoidant Attachment is the attachment style most people think of when they consider what an avoidant personality looks like.*
This style consists of:
Avoiding vulnerability and emotional closeness
Hyper-independence and tendencies toward isolation
Difficulty with commitment and communication
Distrust and low dependence on others
Positive self-image (high perception of self)
Negative image of others (low perception of others)
Many people with Dismissive-Avoidant attachment experience high levels of self-confidence and self-esteem. This is because they have a high perception of themselves (“positive self image”) in comparison to their low perception of others (“negative image of others”). This is often a learned behavior in response to their experiences with caregivers in childhood.
Dismissive-Avoidants may have had caregivers who were emotionally distant and could not meet their needs. It is possible they experienced some level of neglect as a child. It is common to learn this behavior and accept it as normal, and further utilize this behavior as self-defense to avoid disappointment, rejection, or unfamiliarity.
What Behaviors are Indicative of Avoidant Attachment?
Isolation and a preference for solitude
Distrust and reluctance to open up emotionally
A lack of interest in the emotions of others
Resistance to commitment in relationships
Tendency to dismiss the importance of relationships
Reluctance to reach out for support or rely on others
Suppression of emotions
Fear of being controlled
Avoidance of conflict or disagreements
Tendency to romanticize the past
Preference for superficial relationships
Dislike of big displays of emotion from others
Avoidance of physical displays of affection
How Art Helps Heal Avoidant Attachment
Art is a great resource to begin healing Avoidant Attachment. The individual is able to express and explore emotion through a physical process - allowing for a certain level of mental detachment. When provided with creative freedom, the avoidant attacher can experience a comforting detachment of the logical mind and overwhelming emotion. In this case, their body and subconscious mind is doing the work while their emotions are expressed without emphasizing it at the forefront of their mind.
How to Use Art for Avoidant Attachment:
Create without a plan: avoid perfectionism or expectation of what it will look like. Focus on the act of doing the creating, rather than the end result. This helps you create more freely without overwhelming emotional responses or a fear of mistakes, which can trigger an emotional “shutdown” response.
Utilize colors and shapes: draw whatever feels right in the moment. Without thinking ahead, grab whatever colors you naturally gravitate to. Focus on physical sensations and allow your body to move the utensil in whatever manner you like.
Practice grounding: focus on bodily sensations rather than emotions. This can be especially helpful for avoidant attachers. It creates a meditative “flow” state that calms the nervous system without the added pressure of explaining your emotions.
Analyse artwork: only after the creation is complete, you may utilize resources to analyze your own artwork. This may help cultivate self-awareness and encourage the healing process.
Discard the artwork: you may experience uncomfortable emotions after creating or analyzing the artwork. This is completely normal and can be mitigated through self-soothing techniques. One option is to discard or destroy the artwork after completion to comfort your need for emotional distance. This also provides a physical release of negative emotion.
Beginner Resources for Analyzing Your Artwork:
Art Therapy for Avoidant Attachment
There are many options for exploring art for Avoidant Attachment or avoidant behaviors. To encourage healing and self-awareness, it is advisable to work with a Clinical Art Therapist to help evaluate and work on the underlying emotions.
Since avoidant attachers may experience emotional resistance to accepting help from others in a clinical environment, educating oneself to improve self-awareness is the next-best option. If receiving clinical help is too distressing at the moment, there are many excellent resources online for self-analyzing symbolism, subject, and color.
However, self-analysis is limited and a clinical therapist may be able to offer an outside perspective that can further self-understanding. Gradually improving awareness through self-education may lead to the ability to receive help from a clinician in the future to gain additional awareness and navigate roadblocks to healing.
*A Note on Fearful-Avoidant Attachment
In the case of presenting Dismissive-Avoidant Attachment including deep wounds of insecurity relating to self-worth, the avoidant behavior may be categorized in a different way. A distorted perception of interpersonal relationships and emotional dysregulation, coupled with inconsistent behaviors and a negative internal self-image can be indicative of Disorganized (Fearful-Avoidant) Attachment.
While this is not classified as an Avoidant Attachment Style, it can have many similarities. Those with Disorganized Attachment exhibit characteristics of both Avoidant Attachment Style and Anxious Attachment Style. They may gravitate toward more avoidant behaviors or more anxious behaviors, dependent on the individual.
Fearful-Avoidant Attachment Style may present as Dismissive-Avoidant attachment style when the dismissive behaviors are used as a primary defense mechanism. Fearful-Avoidants may present as having a high perception of self, masking the underlying negative self-image. This creates cognitive dissonance and inconsistent, unpredictable behaviors. For more information on Disorganized Attachment, click here.
Article Resources:
Disclaimer: All content reflects the author’s opinions and personal experiences. The author is not a medical or mental health professional. Nothing shared is intended to replace or negate advice from licensed professionals.