Art Therapy in Minnesota
Art therapy in Minnesota is part of the NorthStar Regional treatment week for a clinical reason: some feelings are hard to say. Drawing a feeling can help you understand what you cannot yet explain, and working with your hands calms you. Art groups run in afternoon programming across our residential campuses, beside CBT and counseling, no talent required. A second job is just as clinical: relearning to enjoy everyday things, the base of every recovery plan. We accept Medical Assistance (Medicaid) and most major insurers, and nothing you make has to hang in a gallery.
Art therapy at a glance
Art groups
Structured art sessions are part of your treatment week. They run in the afternoons, alongside learning and recreation groups.
Talent night and community events
Residents can perform or share their work at talent nights and other campus events.
Skills that last after treatment
You don’t need to be good at art. The goal is learning to manage strong emotions, and that stays with you after treatment.
Inpatient Rehabilitation
Art, music, gardening, and recreation are part of the full residential schedule on both the men’s and women’s campuses.
Licensed Treatment Programs
Founded 2015
Addiction and mental health care in one system
Multiple Campuses
Across the Twin Cities metro
MN Department of Health: Licensed
MN Department of Human Services: Licensed
Understanding the therapy
How Art Therapy Helps in Addiction Treatment
“Boredom is relapse’s best friend. We keep life at NorthStar full.”
Jason Vanderscoff, LADC, CEO of NorthStar Regional
Talk therapy assumes you can find the feeling and say it. Sometimes you cannot yet. Trauma, grief, and years of numbing can leave feelings that are strong but hard to describe. Art gives you a way to express them. You do not have to explain anything to make a drawing. Working with your hands helps you calm down, and once you are calmer, it is easier to talk in your next group.
There is a second job, just as clinical: joy. Addiction narrows life until the substance is the only reward you can count on. Early recovery can feel gray without it. Creative work, along with gardening, recreation, movie nights, trivia, and the campus talent night, retrains the brain. It learns to find reward in things that do not cost you your life. At NorthStar Regional we keep the days full on purpose. A full day is part of the treatment.
Is this right for you?
Signs Art Therapy Might Help You
Art groups are part of every residential week. These are the signs they deserve real weight in your plan.
You Can’t Put Feelings Into Words
You can describe your week easily and your feelings not at all. When talking is guarded, making something is often still open.
All You Feel Is Pressure
Not sadness or anger you can point to. Just a feeling of stress and heaviness you can’t name. Drawing it can help you understand what it is.
You Used to Make Things
A sketchbook in a drawer, a camera bag, a garage project. Addiction took it. Getting it back is recovery you can hold in your hands.
Sitting Still Makes It Worse
Some people settle through rhythm, repetition, and working with their hands. If an hour of talk leaves you more anxious than when you started, art is another way to do the work.
Nothing Sounds Fun Sober
That is not a personality change. It is a brain that learned to find reward in one place, and it relearns by doing.
You Can’t Get Through The Trauma Work
When the story is too painful to talk about directly, creative work lets you approach it slowly, at a distance you can handle.
If even a few of these sound like you, that is reason enough to call. You don’t need to be certain, and you don’t need a diagnosis. A comprehensive assessment will sort out where this fits in your care. Reading this for someone you love? Start with our guide for parents or our guide for spouses and partners.
How It Helps
Art Therapy for Addiction and Mental Health
Expression and calming the nervous system are not addiction-only tools. The same art groups that help with cravings also help with depression and anxiety, which is why they are built into co-occurring care rather than added on the side. Whatever you are working on, it has its own page and its own plan.
For Addiction
Every substance we treat is explained on its own page, from the first assessment through sober living.
For Mental Health
At designated NorthStar Regional programs, these conditions are treated together with addiction as co-occurring care, in one plan. Standalone mental health treatment, no substance use diagnosis needed, is available through our outpatient clinic in Shakopee.
What to expect
How Art Therapy Fits into Your Week
Three settings, one purpose: ways to express yourself when words won’t come.
Art Groups
Structured art sessions inside the treatment week. They run beside the learning and recreation groups in the afternoons.
Talent Night and Community Events
Community events where the campus comes alive. They are optional and recurring. Often they are the first place people laugh sober.
Regulation You Keep
The goal is not a finished piece of music. It’s leaving with a reliable, substance-free way to settle your own nervous system. That gets written into your aftercare plan.
Where You'll Find It at NorthStar Regional
Art Therapy Across the Continuum
Residential care has the most art therapy because we plan your whole day there.
Residential
Inpatient Rehabilitation
Art, music, gardening, and recreation. All of it is woven through the full residential schedule. On both men’s and women’s campuses.
Extended care
Low-Intensity Residential Treatment
Creative work and community events over a longer stay. Routines have time to become habits.
Outpatient
Intensive Outpatient
Skills-focused groups meet on an outpatient schedule. The creative tools you use become part of your treatment plan.
Treatment Options
Explore Our Addiction and Mental Health Therapies and Services
Recovery rarely rests on one method. Below are the addiction and mental health therapies and services at NorthStar Regional. Each has its own page. Your comprehensive assessment, the full evaluation that sets your plan, decides which mix of therapies your plan starts with.
Who's behind the work
About NorthStar Regional
NorthStar Regional is Minnesota’s treatment system built around access: alcohol and drug treatment centers and mental health care across multiple Twin Cities metro locations. Founded in 2015, we provide one connected continuum: detox (withdrawal management), residential, outpatient, mental health, and a sober housing pathway. Separate men’s and women’s campuses, co-occurring care at designated programs, and no faith requirement set us apart. We accept Medical Assistance (Medicaid) and most major insurers, and if you are uninsured, our admissions team helps you through enrollment. A person can walk in with nothing and leave with everything they need to build a life.
Paying for Care
Insurance and Payment Options
Our team helps review your benefits and handles the paperwork with you. If you have no insurance, we help walk you through enrolling for benefits. County case managers, probation officers, hospitals, and crisis teams send clients to us because, in their words, we just get it done.
Insurance and State Funding
Commercial plans, Medical Assistance (Medicaid), county placements, and private pay. We verify benefits and handle the paperwork with you.
We Are Here to Help
We help review your benefits, find your right starting point, and schedule you for the same day or the next whenever possible. Then we pick you up anywhere in the Twin Cities metro.
How Admission Works
What Happens From Your First Call to Your First Night
You did the hard part when you picked up the phone. Here is exactly what happens next, so nothing about day one is a mystery.
You Call and a Real Person Answers
A real person answers, usually within seconds, and asks one short question: substance use, or mental health? There is no phone tree, and you don’t have to tell your life story. We ask only what we need and handle the rest.
We Help with the Details
Our team helps review your benefits, and a short screening covers withdrawal risk, medical needs, and mental health, so you land at the right level of care. Then we schedule you, same day or next day whenever possible.
We Pick You Up
You get reminder calls and texts before pickup. For residential, your admissions coordinator and your driver also call you together, so you know who’s coming, what car to look for, and when to expect them. Many of our drivers are in long-term recovery themselves, and yours will help with your bags.
A Real Person Meets You When You Arrive
Your driver walks you inside and introduces you by name to the team member waiting for you. Your intake team completes your application with you. If you’re hungry, there’s a meal waiting. From there, treatment starts, and we help take care of the logistics along the way.
“The client has done the hard work by picking up the phone. We will carry them the rest of the way.”
Sarah Roy, Executive Vice President
Reviews from Google
Why Clients Choose NorthStar Regional
Don’t just take our word for it. Here is what alumni say about their time in treatment.
Keep reading
Related Articles and Resources
Resources
Before You Call
How admissions works, guides for families, and the forms you can complete early. More resources are linked throughout the site, or contact admissions and we’ll send anything by email.
Questions we hear every day
Common Questions About Art Therapy
What is art therapy in addiction treatment?
Art therapy in addiction treatment uses creative work as part of your recovery. At NorthStar Regional, that means structured art groups during your treatment week, plus creative events across campus. Making something helps you express feelings that are hard to put into words. It can also help you enjoy everyday things again after addiction has made that harder.
Is this real therapy or just an activity?
Both. It is enjoyable, and it is also part of treatment. Creative groups at NorthStar Regional are part of the clinical week because expression, calming the nervous system, and connection are treatment goals.
I'm not artistic. Is this still for me?
Yes. Nobody is graded and nobody judges your work. What matters is the process, not the finished piece: feeling calmer, understanding a feeling better, and getting through an afternoon without using.
Why does art help with addiction?
Art helps with addiction by giving you healthy ways to find relief. Over time, addiction can leave you relying on a substance for all of it. Making art lets you express yourself without explaining, focus without feeling anxious, and feel good without using. Those skills can help lower your risk of relapse.
What creative programming runs at NorthStar Regional?
Art groups, music programming (covered in full on our music programming overview), gardening, and community events. Those events include talent night, movie nights, and trivia. Fun is part of the program, not a break from it. Boredom is one of the most common reasons people relapse.
Will insurance cover treatment that includes creative programming?
In many cases, yes. Creative groups are part of our treatment programs, so they’re included when your insurance covers the program. We accept Medical Assistance (Medicaid) and most major insurers, and our team can help you check your benefits.
Admissions
Make the First Call and We'll Take It from There
Confidential, no obligation, and answered by someone who knows what you’re facing and cares to listen.