Adult colouring is hip, but can we really call it art therapy?

Last year, a soon-to-be-father bought his expectant fiancé a colouring book, hoping it might relax her in the run-up to labour.

“I thought he was an idiot,” says my friend Hannah, who gave birth to their son almost a year ago. “But it was a very sweet and supportive thing to do, so I thought I’d give it a go.”

A year later, she is still colouring. And she’s not alone.

Turn to Facebook and you’ll find several adult colouring communities, one with almost 16,500 members sharing their latest pictures and book purchases. Secret Garden: An inky treasure hunt and colouring book by British artist Johanna Basford has sold more than a million copies worldwide and been translated into 14 different languages. High-street book retailer Waterstones has reported a year-on-year sales increase of 300% according to The Telegraph, and four adult colouring books currently feature in Amazon U.K.’s Top 20.

When independent UK publisher Michael O’Mara first published an adult colouring book in 2012, Creative Coloring for Grown-Ups, it was simply marketed at adults looking for an artistic pastime. Look a little closer at the bookshelves today and you’ll notice that many of these books promise mental health benefits, such as The Art Therapy Colouring Book by Richard Merritt, or The Mindfulness Colouring Book: Anti-stress art therapy for busy people by Emma Farrarons.

Marketing the meditative perspective adds a grown-up aspect to an otherwise childish activity, but has the craze wandered into questionable territory? Can a £5 colouring book really offer therapy?

Well, perhaps. It seems to depend on how you define therapy.

“I think anything that helps you step away from whatever it is you’re doing in your life, and find some space to think about things, or to ignore things in a positive way—not alcohol, not drugs, not stuffing your face full of chocolate—has got to be some kind of therapy,” says Hannah.

“I can think about things in a very disengaged way. I’m thinking about pink and green and yellow, but I can also be organizing my thoughts. But they’re not at the forefront of my mind because I’m doing something more intricate, directly in front of me.“

As a past patient of psychotherapy, Hannah admits that colouring lacks depth in terms of analysis, but says we shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss the psychological benefits involved in the pastime.

“Anyone who has suffered depression will understand that one of the worst things is being made to deal with it or talk about when you don’t want to,” she says. “Your time is controlled by [the therapist]. Sometimes you might not feel like talking at 5 p.m. on a Monday, but that’s the time that you’re allowed. And if you miss that session then you have to wait for another week.

“Something you can do at home that allows you to switch off… you have much more control over it. It is a relaxation technique,” she continues. “It’s therapeutic.”

Curious to see who else is chatting about colouring, a quick Facebook search leads me to illustrator Sandra Clarke, who produces meditation art journals and adult colouring books, and dontates all proceeds to fund art therapy programs. She says her inspiration came from her own experiences of anxiety and depression.

“I created my designs so that I could cope, and I want to help others find the same calm, peace and mindful meditation,” says Clarke, sharing some of her designs on her Facebook community for others to print off. The group now has 871 members.

The focus maintained while colouring opens up the frontal lobe of the brain—the part of the brain that deals with problem solving, explains Clarke, meaning it helps us exercise practical skills.

But not enough people are making the distinction between the terms ‘therapy’ and ‘therapeutic’, believes art psychotherapist Francesca La Nave, a member of the British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT), who was more than happy to offer me an expert opinion.

“Art therapy is a formal, relational treatment between therapist and patient. It uses art and image making as an intervention alongside verbal communication,” explains La Nave.

“Anything can be therapeutic—cooking, walking, meeting friends in the pub or colouring books. Therapeutic is anything that makes us feel better,” she continues. “People use colouring books to tap into a form of therapeutic activity that works for them, and that’s great. But it’s not art therapy.”

Despite this categorical distinction, La Nave is quick to praise colouring as a useful tool within therapy treatment.

“Even before the books were trendy, some of my patients would create shapes and fill in areas of colour,” says La Nave. “The rhythmic movement of the hand made them calmer. It was soothing. They felt like they’d had a sleep.”

Calming as colouring may be, it is not therapy in itself, according to La Nave, and should not be labeled so. But it poses a bigger question as regards the popularity of colouring today: why are we in such dire need of something to soothe us?

“We are suffering,” says La Nave, suggesting that our frenetic city lifestyles lead to a heightened level of anxiety, particularly in those with mid-level management jobs.

“They’re pushed to perform from above and below. They’re incredibly stressed. What can they do? They can go to the gym, or they can pick up a colouring book. It acts like an anchor. They are drawn to something that is rhythmic, cathartic, soothing,” she explains.

A common pattern in adult colouring books is a mandala—an eastern design used in meditation, usually circular concentric shapes on which people focus to keep their mind from wandering.

“There is a meditative quality to making art in general,” agrees La Nave. “You can stop and step back, reflect, let it sit there for a while, then go back and change something,” says La Nave. “A colouring book is a small-scale version of that—reflection, observation, consideration—it’s pendulum-like.”

The Mindfulness Colouring Book: Anti-stress art therapy for busy people by Emma Farrarons, which is currently a #1 Bestseller on Amazon U.K., focuses heavily on colouring as a meditation exercise.

“Taking a moment to pause and be mindful can dramatically improve our well-being, making us feel calmer, less stressed and more at peace with our emotions,” Farrarons writes on her website. Mindfulness, she explains, is about clearing your mind of distractions and focusing on the present moment.

Another friend of mine has recently started colouring to practice mindfulness, opting for felt-tipped pens rather than the more common pencils, because she “like[s] the idea of creating something bright.”

“I tried a mindfulness app, and I found I couldn’t concentrate on something for about five seconds before my mind wandered off,” she says. “Whereas something like [colouring], you’re concentrating and it doesn’t matter what you’re thinking about; you’re allowed to let your mind wander.

“I wanted something that was silent, that would make me concentrate and get satisfaction from,” she continues. “It’s good to practice concentrating, There are so many distractions, in my life anyway.”

One of her favorite aspects of coloring is the sense of completion and accomplishment it brings.

“I’m working on a difficult project at work that’s really long-term. It’s exciting but it’s going to be 2018 before I see things published. At the moment, that’s a long way off. It’s difficult to motivate yourself to carry on before you can see results.”

By colouring, she will complete something every hour or so, picking the colors and completing them individually. But as much as she enjoys it, she also believes that labeling it art therapy is misleading because it’s a solo activity.

“I imagine someone else being involved in therapy,” she says. “[Colouring] is something you can take control of yourself, without having to analyze what you’re doing and why.”

“For example, red is my favorite color. It’s as simple as that today,” she continues, pointing to her pillar-box red fingernails and deep-red jumper. “It would never be an angry color for me, but someone else might not know that. I don’t think about my emotions, I just think about how the colors look together.”

“And if it looks good, I feel good,” she says.

Which, one could argue, is the whole point.