WASHINGTON, D.C. — For much of her childhood, RyAnn Watson has been hospitalized for excruciating flare-ups of sickle cell disease. Now 16, she takes refuge from her pain in an art studio at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. On a recent Friday, she was sketching the sandstone towers of the Smithsonian castle with a burnt-red coloring pen, under the watch of her therapist, Tracy Councill.

“It’s more about putting my emotions into the artwork than telling someone about it and making myself upset,” RyAnn said. Without any “pressure to spill the beans,” she said, “I end up talking to Tracy about everything, once I’m drawing.”

Although art therapy is offered by a number of established medical centers, many Americans don’t know much about it. Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy where mental health professionals use art materials to help patients explore feelings that may not be easy to express in words.

Almost overnight, the field has attracted new attention because of a connection with the Trump administration. On Inauguration Day, Karen Pence announced on the newly revamped White House website that she wants to shine a “spotlight on the mental health profession of art therapy.” Mrs. Pence, a watercolorist herself, has been a board member of the art therapy program Tracy’s Kids since 2011, and helped raise funds to hire two full-time art therapists for patients at Riley Hospital for Children in her native Indiana.