An Eden Within: The Therapeutic Benefits of Art

            Art and the creation thereof has long been a significant part of human behaviour.  From cave paintings during our species’ initial development to the digital graphic design of today, art has provided methods of ritual, tradition, storytelling, communication, cultural and individual expression, even war propaganda, and more.  Pablo Picasso said, “All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”  Art is much more than a craft, skill, or discipline; it is behaviour intrinsic to human nature itself.  As children, it is within our instinct to create art in any form, to express and communicate in ways that we perhaps have not the words or understanding for in our early years.  As we grow older, many of us fall out of touch with our natural drive of creation and such means of communication and expression.  Yet with all the stress of adulthood, repressing one’s life experiences (the good, the bad, the everything) can act as a setback to individual growth and understanding, thus affecting the general growth and understanding of our species as a whole.  In the age of endless attempts to solve one’s problems with a pill, art offers natural, healthy, alternative means of problem solving.  Art, therefore, can be regarded as one of the highest, safest, and most intimate forms of mental, emotional, and, in the case of art forms such as dance, even physical therapy.  It is used today as just that"helping people and cultures thrive and continue to develop positively, regardless of conflict and suffering.

           

            What is art?  Such a question is likely to never have just one answer and certainly cannot be limited to moral or subjective concepts as right or wrong, good or bad.   Art, though subjectively created and viewed, is something that has the ability to transcend culture, class, time, and experience, allowing for greater objective understanding.  Though art and the definition thereof becomes more complex as one studies it, it would not be incorrect to start by saying that art can be described simply as creation and communication.  This simple definition, however, of course leaves much to be desired as it quite broadly encompasses the possibilities and reaches of art, but it is an accurate definition nonetheless.

            Beginning with such a definition for art helps to redefine the possibilities of what art can be in the minds of those that do not consider themselves artistically inclined.  Art is commonly misconceived as a high talent or skill"a luxury perhaps to be appreciated only by those who are born with it or by those who can afford it.  More than a painting, symphony, play, or poem, art is not limited to its format.  Best of all, anyone can do it and everyone can learn from it.  The realm of art has technical aspects that can be approached in an academic manner with the sole intent of educational purposes to develop a trade skill or profession.  Although such knowledge can be just as valuable as any math or science if applied to real-life situations, it is not the technical or factual aspects of art that give the greatest benefits, but rather its innate eventuality of self-awareness that has a profound potential to lead to revelation, understanding, and acceptance.

            Art is a process, an experience, a method of working out equations and concepts that are beyond numbers and formulas.  Many artists, though they may begin with a specific concept or idea, embark on an unknown journey into the Self with the beginning of each new piece.  By the time the piece is completed, it and the artist have together transformed into something that could not have been predicted, regardless of any amount of planning.  The piece takes something from the artist and the artist takes something from the piece.  To speak in more concise terms, the artist grows as a person with each creation.  Like a snake shedding its skin, so can a person shed burdens of mind, heart, and body.  It is within the release of any stored information that one becomes, even for a fleeting moment, free from everything.  It is within this freedom of expression where one can find solace.  Moments such as these are what make art therapeutic.

 

 

            As previously stated, everyone can benefit from art.  Consider, however, those that are incapable of expressing themselves through means that many of us take for granted.  In her 2011 article published in The New Zealand Herald, arts therapist Marion Gordon Flower stated that art therapy is particularly helpful for those that lack any range of ability for verbal expression.  She continued, “The act of making a mark on a page, of making choices and of creating something visible or audible is powerful.”  Indeed, the process of the creation of art is certainly empowering, equipping those with the proper tools and outlets for expression who have not the ability to verbally communicate, allowing for the learning, growth, and transformation of communication that so many of us perhaps never stop to consider.

Children are among the most common patients of art therapy, and perhaps this is because children’s spirits tend to lift when someone presents them with a box of chalk or crayons.  Their imaginations are stimulated and in that moment, their world is brightly coloured, regardless of pain or frustration.  Art has been used to help mute children express their intense frustration in healthy ways, allowing them to be better understood by their caregivers and loved ones (Banks).  This in turn allows for the children to have a greater sense of acceptance, helping them to cope better with their condition and become more comfortable with who they are and how to function in a world that does not always cater to their specific needs.

Where art gives a voice to those who have none, it can also be a freedom from the expectation or requirement of verbal communication.  In Johannesburg, South Africa, the Lefika La Phodiso (the Art Therapy Center) is a home away from home"a beacon of hope to many children that have suffered trauma or lost their parents to the HIV virus.  The majority of the children live at poverty level, in shacks of squatter’s camps.  To them, chalk drawings and paintings on the wall are not merely an activity to make time pass.  Rather, they become a communal effort to bring happiness to hardship, inspiring creativity and positivity in those that need it most.  The children do not have to undergo any amount of interrogation of their feelings or thoughts.  They are free to express themselves without speaking.  In that moment, they are free to simply be children"carefree, with no worries of poverty or loss.  A child can fill in the chalk outline of herself with bright, bold paint as she contributes to the Center’s mural; and for once, she can be happy about being blue (Kent).

Johannesburg is not alone in its art therapy centers.  As such methods continue to gain popularity, more centers are beginning to specialize in art therapy and other centers are starting to incorporate more programs that integrate art into their current therapeutic methods, offering better-balanced programs that involve all aspects of mind, body, and spirit.  This allows for a more complete healing process through full self-integration and understanding.  Additionally, art therapy is becoming more widely accepted for all age groups, owing to its outstanding benefits to victims of trauma.  Battered women’s shelters, rape victims units, and rehabilitation centers have all begun to adopt art therapy as vital to the healing process.

Naomi House in Bristol, England, is a rehabilitation center for a specific demographic: new and soon-to-be mothers coming from lives of prostitution and drug addiction.  Naomi House is unique in that it is a rehab center for both mother and child, with programs designed to span the full duration of pregnancy if necessary and allowing a healing and growth period afterward.  Many women have turned their lives around for the better after a stay at Naomi House and earn the right to keep their children with the added benefit of being able to interact with them throughout the rehabilitating process.  There are only four other centers like Naomi House in all the United Kingdom and they have all sprung up relatively recently, Naomi being a center of just three years of age.  Naomi, however, is the only one of the four that caters to women of prostitution.  The center has no more than nine people working at a given time, but operates on a 24-hour system to provide constant, interpersonal care to the mothers and their children.  Among the high quality care programs that include everything from physical therapy and counseling to cooking classes and money management training, there are therapy sessions specifically for art.  These sessions are intended as stress relief, internal communication for self-rediscovery, and as means to stimulate the mind in healthy ways to counteract detrimental stimulation of past substance abuse.  Like the children previously discussed, art helps the women of Naomi house to express themselves freely, without being forced to verbalize any of their feelings, but it also acts as a place to plant the seeds of aspiration and goals.  Some of the women draw images of things they hope for"real things they can aim for and aspire to attain, such as their own house, so often drawn with a beautiful, sunny sky above.  The artwork the women create can be displayed in their own rooms or wherever they have their sessions to act as constant reminders of their potential beyond addiction.  The women speak proudly of their art and the dreams they so lovingly illustrate (“And Baby Comes Too,” 2012).  At Naomi House, art goes beyond just another means of therapy.  It transcends into symbolism for a bright future of stability, freedom, and independence.

Just as there is art therapy specifically designed for children and mothers, there are programs designed for whole families as well.  Family issues are often difficult to discuss and thus difficult to resolve.  Rather than an uncomfortable, professional environment structured much like psychological one-on-one counseling, art therapy aims to have a relaxed, informal environment so those undergoing therapy can truly open up without feeling like they are under the microscope or they are going to hurt someone’s feelings if the truth comes out.  Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil of the Women, Family, and Community Development Ministry in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, spoke about the huge success of the Ministry’s program that was launched in July 2011 called Interaction, Recreation, Intervention, and Support Center (AIRIS), at Kuala Lumpur’s LPPKM Nur Sejahtera clinic.  It was reported that 1,500 families had greatly benefited from the program.  Speaking about the difficulties of family therapy specifically, Shahrizat said, “Some people find it uncomfortable to talk about family-centric problems in a very formal environment.  Here the counselors and psychologists use art as a way to connect and communicate with the participants and vice-versa.”  She went on to explain that one of the many strengths of the program was that it catered to every family member when they felt they needed it (“Families Benefit from Art Therapy Counseling Technique,” 2011).  In the case of AIRIS, the art therapy program not only offered an unrestricted form of expression and communication, but also made each participant undergoing therapy feel that their thoughts and emotions had value.  Validating one’s thoughts and emotions can help an individual better understand such things rather than reject them out of fear or guilt.

Repression of negativity is very common and is quite often a prime source of depression, inner conflict, and conflict with others.  Repression can also be so extreme that an individual’s memory can be altered.  Experiencing extreme trauma generally causes this repression of memories, thoughts, or feelings.  Victims of rape or child molestation are among the most common to have such difficulties recalling painful memories.  Studies have shown that although these things can be repressed in the mind, they have the ability to resurface anytime.  Sigmund Freud first conceptualized repression, explaining it as a defensive process that pushes extreme negative feelings into the unconscious and are thereby “forgotten” in a way but are forever active in a person’s mind, affecting their responses and decisions, all the while the person is unaware.  This idea of repression and the debilitating effects thereof has been so widely accepted by therapists that it has become an important emphasis in catering to a person’s mental and emotional well being (Epstein and Bottoms).

Given that art is such an intrinsic expression, it has the ability to tap into a person’s subconscious.  So many artists create somewhat impulsively, becoming a tool for their creativity rather than their creativity being a tool for them.  As briefly touched on earlier, a person can learn more about him or herself through analysis of their own art.  It is at this stage of reflection with a piece of art that a person can peek into their subconscious, all their inner workings.  A young adult, for example, could have ongoing themes in their art that allude to violent acts.  The youth may not understand where his inspiration comes from but, through continued art therapy, repressed memories could resurface and with it the remembrance of painful child abuse.  In such a case, the healing process has already begun.  One must be aware of a wound to nurse it.  Those that are not supplied the proper attention and treatment to start and progress through a healing process and are otherwise left in their repressive state, have the potential to lose complete control as the repressed negativity takes over.  The long-term effects of rape, for example, are far less common in clinical studies than that of the immediate aftereffects.  Many rape victims have been studied and cared for shortly after an attack but are neglected in their later years.  More recent studies of long-term effects of rape without continued therapy have shown that many victims revert into depression under certain stressors"some so much to the point of suicide (Burgess and Holmstrom).  But what if these victims had been introduced to art?  What if, during the aftermath of the incident, healthy habits of expression were formed through the use of art therapy?  It is likely to assume that many of the victims in question could have adjusted to some kind of normalcy and maintained a level of such throughout their years had they been equipped with the expressive freedom that art provides.

 

 

Poet Maya Angelou is world-renowned.  One of her most famous works, a collection of poems titled “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” documents her own triumph over hardship.  As a young girl, she was a victim of rape and racial oppression.  Through poetry, she was able to overcome her insecurities and fears and has since shared them with the world.  Although she admits the collected work was difficult to complete as it caused her to relive many painful events throughout her life, she was better for it (Long).  Angelou has long stood as a pillar of inspiration for many aspiring writers and even musicians such as Fiona Apple have credited her as a light in the darkness.  Apple, too, was a victim of rape when she was a child and was introduced to Angelou’s work by her mother as means of therapy.  She went on to have a successful music career and was named Best New Artist at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards.  Both women used art to transform their pain into success.

Korean painter Posoon Park battled cancer for two decades, being diagnosed and treated for it a total of three times.  Although she went through an exhaustive amount of medical treatment that left her in perhaps even more pain than the cancer itself, Park credits her strength throughout it all to her art.  She admitted to not attending physical therapy as much as she was supposed to.  Instead, she forced herself to make art.  At her weakest, Park painted her largest piece.  With barely the physical strength to hold a brush, Park exhibited immense strength in will to continue her painting.  Because she did so, she noticeably acquired more energy that, in turn, gave her body what it needed to expedite the healing process.  After battling cancer and winning, Park is now dedicated to helping others heal through art.  Her program has received sponsorship from Roche Korea and the Korea Breast Cancer Patients’ Society and continues to help many in their own battles against disease (Taylor).

Hospitalization can be a hindrance, a blessing, or both.  In slight contrast to Park’s physical illness, esteemed Beat poet Allen Ginsberg owes his most famous work, “HOWL,” to a tumultuous time in his life that resulted in a temporary residence at the Psychiatric Institute of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.  The poem is dedicated to Carl Solomon, a man Ginsberg befriended during his stay.  Ginsberg himself considered the hospitalization to be a hindrance to his creativity, as much of his treatment was intended to force him into society’s heterosexual conforms, insisting that there was something “wrong” with him.  Though his time was difficult, it inspired a poem that shook the very foundation of American culture.  Janet Hadda words it particularly poignantly in her 2008 article published in American Imago: “I have come to the conclusion that this period in hospital, while brief and unheralded, provided Allen Ginsberg an opportunity never before allowed him: to succumb to the chaos that had always shadowed his existence.”

Art is among the most successful forms of therapy, allowing people to freely explore themselves, the world around them, and their reactions to such in subtle yet powerful ways, leading to progressive healing and profound transformation without force.  The arts have long been coveted not simply for decoration, pleasure, or expression.  Art transcends boundaries of all sorts, being a prime source of cultural and individual communication"a method of sharing and experiencing all that cannot be expressed in literal terms or simple forms.  Through art, we are not only able to experience and discover ourselves… we are able to experience and discover the world and all its beauty.  Through art, a lust for life and an appreciation of existence sprouts, even through a soil of suffering.  In time, art gives us the ability to construct our own gardens of paradise, a dream house in the sun, as we succumb to our own chaos and turn our pain into happiness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

“And Baby Comes Too: Rehab for Mothers in Crisis.” The Telegraph. 5 Jan 2012. LexisNexis. Web. 4 Feb. 2012.

Banks, Sandy. “More Than an Art Project; Domestic Violence Victims Rebuild Lives by Tapping Creativity.” Los Angeles Times. 31 Jan. 2012: A, 2. LexisNexis. Web. 3 Feb. 2012.

Burgess, Ann Wolbert and Lynda Lytle Holmstrom. “Recovery from Rape and Prior Life Stress.” Research in Nursing and Health 1.4 (1978): 165 " 174. Wiley Online Library.  Web. 4 Feb. 2012.

Epstein, Michelle A. and Bette L. Bottoms. “Explaining the Forgetting and Recovery of Abuse and Trauma Memories: Possible Mechanisms.” Child Maltreatment 7.3. (2002): 210 " 225. Sage Publications. Web. 4 Feb. 2012.

“Families Benefit from Art Therapy Counseling Technique.” New Straits Times. 17 Jul. 2011: 29. LexisNexis. Web. 3 Feb. 2012.

Flower, Marion Gordon. “My Job: Healing with Creative Expression.” The New Zealand Herald. 19 Jan. 2011. LexisNexis. Web. 3 Feb. 2012.

Hadda, Janet. “Ginsberg in Hospital.” American Imago 65.2 (2008): 229 " 260. Google Scholar. Web. 4 Feb. 2012.

Kent, Paul. “A Bright Day for Africa’s Children.” The Courier Mail. 17 Jun. 2010: 94. LexisNexis. Web. 3 Feb. 2012.

Long, Richard. “Maya Angelou.” Rev. of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou. Smithsonian 36.8. Nov. 2005: 84 " 85. Google Scholar. Web. 4 Feb. 2012.

Taylor, Kristy. “Fighting Cancer with Creativity.” The Korea Herald. 25 Jan. 2012. LexisNexis. Web. 3 Feb. 2012.