The Art Therapy Practice

Creating homemade gifts for loved ones this holiday season may offer several therapeutic opportunities for artistic expression as well as help one creatively cope with this year’s added complication of social distancing and increased isolation during the pandemic. A recent Healthline article cites several academic studies reviewing the health and well-being benefits of crafting. A summary of their findings is that: crafting and engaging in creative activities may help decrea...se anxiety, stress, and mood disturbances, as well improve well-being and quality of life. People who engaged in arts and crafts, such as music, painting, drawing, textile crafts, and creative writing experienced lower levels of mental distress. They also experienced higher levels of mental functioning and life satisfaction. Crafting is calming, may promote successful aging, and even has long-term social and cultural benefits. Although our clinical and fine art training as art therapists goes beyond the common arts and crafts association around our profession, we too, at times, recommend hands-on, creative, DIY activities to help regulate emotions at home and consider this art as therapy. More insight-oriented, deeper processing of clinical content is recommended to be explored within the safe therapeutic context of art therapy with a trained professional. Here is some crafty, seasonal inspiration in the meantime! Doodling with fabric markers on a tote bag or plain articles of clothing can be a fun way to personalize fabric gifts. Sculpting with oven-bake polymer clay offers another unique approach to art-making and gift-giving, as you can mold the clay into whatever form you’d like using your hands or common kitchen tools. You can make a ring dish for your spouse, a coaster for mom, or some clay plant pots for the green thumbs in the family. Other ideas include baking seasonal sweets, creating your own wreath from natural items gathered during a walk outdoors, patching together a quilt, knitting warm weather clothing for family or a new baby, experimenting with painting on a canvas, building a terrarium, writing a silly or sentimental song and recording it or performing it live over video chat, or trying out a cross-stitch kit with a special design, quote, or even an inside joke. All of these activities can help boost mood, provide a healthy distraction from current stressors, and spread joy to others, since truly, there’s nothing like a homemade gift. https://www.healthline.com//diy-gifts-that-double-as-menta Photo by Mariana Medvedeva via Unsplash

Marie Paneth was an Austrian painter of Jewish descent, international traveler, divorced mother of three, and art teacher experienced in working in community-based programs across London’s socio-economic spectrum. She was also a friend of the Freud family and was at one point romantically involved with Heinz Hartmann, the famous psychoanalyst/psychiatrist considered to be one the main founders of ego psychology. Paneth is considered to be an early art therapist who introduce...d the therapeutic value of the arts to orphans of Auschwitz immediately following WWII. Her journal was recently rediscovered in the US Library of Congress during research for a 2020 feature film and is being published under the title Rock the Cradle this month by a UK-based publishing company. Through her daily entries, Paneth described how she created an art studio as a safe space for roughly 300 displaced children to begin to non-verbally express their unimaginable trauma while housed at the Calgarth Estate in the town of Windermere, England after their concentration camps were liberated in 1945. The journal includes images of some of the actual paintings created by Paneth’s students including trees with blue and red leaves because anything green could not be imagined in the greyness of Auschwitz. Marie summarized her approach with the children: Here is our taskto make life worthwhile for them; to make them find a positive answer to ‘what for’; to make them fit to live in a normal society and to enjoy normal life...What they must get from us is a sense of security and continuity in their personal relationships, in their environment, and in their training. And last, though not least, we must give them happy experiences worth remembering. https://www.inyourarea.co.uk//nostalgia-auschwitz-book-te/ Image of a student’s painting of the Calgarth Estate in Windermere, England

Last month art therapy pioneer, artist, and activist Cliff Joseph passed away at age 98. Joseph dedicated his life to empowering marginalized communities through the use of art for both personal healing and social change. Joseph was a Caribbean-born, Harlem-raised military Veteran and artist whose oil paintings captured the social struggles of the era. He was active in advocating for increased BIPOC representation and multiculturalism in both the NYC museum world and field ...of art therapy in the 1960s-70s, and credited the witnessing of Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous I Have a Dream speech in person with how he chose to use the power of creativity in his life. He explained, I was so moved by that experience and what it said to me about the way I should be using my art skills. This really awakened me. Joseph founded the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition with a group of artists who challenged the underrepresentation of racially diverse voices within art museums and cultural institutions such as the MET and Whitney in NYC. Joseph stated, Those who are at the head of the oppressive system know well the power of art and fear it in the hands of the people, he wrote. That is why power structures throughout man’s history have sought to suppress and control the creative artist. Joseph studied art therapy at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY where he later taught for over a decade and introduced concepts like cultural sensitivity to the field, which was very young and homogeneous at the time. He explained, It’s not that a person has to be Black to deal with Black patients, he said. But if a white person comes in to deal with a group of Black people, that person should know that a culture-specific approach should be used. Joseph was the first Black member of the American Art Therapy Association after attending early meetings with his friend and colleague, Edith Kramer, who is considered one of the founders of art therapy. Rest in power, Cliff Joseph. https://www.nytimes.com/20//04/arts/cliff-joseph-dead.html Ancestral Affirmations Oil Painting by Cliff Joseph via Aaron Galleries

Recent female unemployment rates strongly suggest that remote learning and lack of accessible and affordable childcare options are affecting mothers’ career paths on a national scale. Women have accounted for the majority of jobs lost during the pandemic, and since this summer, according to an economist at the Center for American Progress named Michael Madowitz, there’s been a pronounced slowing of job growth and labor participation for married women. Statistics show that ...four times more women left the labor force than men in September; during periods of economic uncertainty history has shown that heterosexual couples often revert to traditional gender roles with the accompanying division of labor, according to sociologist and researcher Jessica Calarco. Men also continue to outearn women in most fields, so giving up work during the pandemic has become a pragmatic financial decision for many families, although it too can come with a cost. Since April Calarco has surveyed over 100 mothers based in Indiana in her Pandemic Parenting Study, and learned that 40 percent of her respondents are reporting increases in pandemic-related frustrations with their partners, and child care is a major source of strife. Rather than ask their spouses to step up their domestic contributions, ‘mothers blame themselves for these conflicts and feel responsible for reducing them, including by leaving the workforce, beginning use of antidepressants, or ignoring their own concerns about Covid-19.’ We want to acknowledge and address the huge psychosocial strain put on parents during this pandemic, and are beginning a tele-art therapy group just for them. Through a series of online art therapy sessions led by a seasoned art therapist (who is also a working parent specializing in perinatal mental health) and using an open studio process method based on relevant weekly themes, participants will be invited to engage in mindful art-making while practicing self care and developing a stress relief outlet that can be used for creative coping outside of session as well. Interested but not able to commit to 6 weeks just yet? We're running a "trial" group on 11.10.20 at 1:30p! Email Sharon at [email protected] for more information and to sign up! Art by Olivia Waller https://www.nytimes.com//working-moms-job-loss-coronavirus

Earlier this month First Nations artist and art therapist Megan Kanerahtenha:wi Whyte painted a mural that is showcased on a billboard outside of Kateri Memorial Hospital Centre in the Kanien'kehá:ka Mohawk community of Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada to honor their essential healthcare workers who have tirelessly served throughout the pandemic. The mural incorporates aspects of Kanien'kehá:ka culture such as a smudge bowl and different stages of the lunar cycle, as well a masked ...worker in scrubs standing with an outstretched arm in front of a row of silhouetted people holding hands along the horizon. This was meant to symbolize the many roles those working in the hospital system must play in order to provide the best quality of care during the ongoing health crisis while adding an important element of Indigenous representation. Whyte explains, "Despite the hardships and challenging experiences that we have during this time, we're doing it together. There's a lot of different feelings that come out during this time for many reasons, so to have that medicine incorporated into the mural was really important to convey that we have our cultural teachings and access to land and culture to help us through this, and that is an element that's there in our work as Indigenous people working with Indigenous people. Indeed, burnout among essential workers is a very real professional hazard right now, and many are digging deep to find sources of strength and inspiration to continue to do the best work they can even when feeling depleted. Executive Director Lisa Westaway shared that there was an outbreak of COVID-19 early on in the pandemic, but miraculously no reported cases in their long-term residents. The mural serves as a concrete, tangible, and lasting way of demonstrating gratitude, appreciation, teamwork and everything the hospital has done since "they're tired like everybody else but they have to continually give. She added, it was our way of saying thank you [to our staff] because just saying thank you just didn't feel like it was enough. https://www.cbc.ca//kahnawake-hospital-mural-heath-care-wo

Today we were inspired by the collective artivism spearheaded by a number of local Creative Arts Therapists in NYC. The New York Art Therapy Association (NYATA) partnered with The All Street Journal, a grassroots youth led movement promoting visually oriented activism throughout New York City, to engage in a day of sign making, canvas painting, letter writing, and chalk art-making as a form of protest art. On their social media channels NYATA explained, protest art is a... dynamic practice utilizing the creative power of art to move us emotionally and strategically bring about positive social change. Together, these organizations provided free art supplies and gathered in Washington Square Park for an afternoon of community art-making themed around issues of social justice and utilizing the arts for healing. This park has been known as an epicenter of resistance since the late 50s when folks musicians like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan began playing concerts there, and has been attracting artists, students, and idealists to the heart of Greenwich Village ever since. Chalk art messages included, CATs [Creative Arts Therapists] for Change, Art Gives Us a Voice, Love, and Create Resilience. We at the Art Therapy Practice believe that this is what community looks like, and stand in solidarity with our fellow Creative Arts Therapists and all those utilizing art for healing and social change. @ny.art.therapy.assoc @theallstreetjournal Photo by Shannon Bradley, Licensed Creative Arts Therapist/ Psychotherapist

COVID-19 has created a major shift in daily habits and lifestyles as individuals spend more time at home in order to protect themselves and their communities. However, the domestic sphere is not safe for many families who experience domestic violence, which can include both intimate partners and children. For many, the pandemic has uprooted vital social support networks and easy access to community resources, created major financial losses, and triggered adverse mental health... reactions. These factors dramatically increase the risk of violence in the home, where victims may be forced to stay in a dangerous situation due to social distancing and quarantining. This October, to draw attention to Domestic Violence Awareness month and commemorate 40 years of helping victims of domestic abuse, an Illinois-based nonprofit called Sarah’s Inn unveiled a community-inspired mural created by a local artist and survivor named Antonia Ruppert. Ruppert’s work was inspired by feedback from clients and staff at Sarah’s Inn, and includes the reminder that your story matters. She explains, I believe art is healing. I hope once they come here and see this mural that they feel like they’ve made it to hope. That’s what I was looking for when I first came here. Photo by Steve Schering of Pioneer Press https://www.chicagotribune.com//ct-oak-sarahs-inn-mural-tl

Our program manager describes our Practice in this new video clip by The Art Therapy Project

Irritability, frustration, and even feelings of rage are common responses to feeling powerless in difficult life circumstances that seem outside of one’s control. The famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud first wrote about the concept of ego defenses in the 1890s, describing the unconscious and complex cognitive strategies used to protect ourselves from undesirable emotions in response to a perceived threat to our sense of self. His daughter, Anna Freud, expanded on his original... work 40 years later, coining the idea of sublimation, or the ability to turn unacceptable (i.e. destructive or aggressive) emotions or impulses into behaviors which are constructive and more socially acceptable. Channeling anger into creative activity and artmaking is a quintessential example of this process; moreover, art for social change and artivism is often fueled by response to injustice or civil outrage. As artists, many of us are burning with the need to say something about it all. We want to take our anger at the collective tragedies and channel it into our arta gold mine of creative riches. For others, it is a more personal and ongoing journey that goes beyond pounding on a slab of clay or splatter-painting to work through the cathartic, initial release of energy and access the deeper emotional terrain that may lurk underneath. Art therapy can be helpful in helping one find meaning in the artmaking experience and avoid becoming overpowered and immobilized by the sheer force of emotion. The director of Whitecliffe’s art therapy program in New Zealand, Amanda Levey explains, Arts in therapy have this symbolic and ritualistic importance...If someone creates something they’re angry about, I’ll ask them what they want to do with it. Burn it? Rip it up? Take it to the sea? It becomes a ritualised way of dealing with the emotions. Photo by Leonardo Baldissara on Unsplash https://www.thebigidea.nz/sto/how-to-channel-anger-into-art

With the days slowly becoming shorter, ongoing feelings of pandemic fatigue, and election anxiety in full swing, maintaining optimal mental wellness can feel particularly challenging right now, especially for those with underlying mental illness. The National Alliance on Mental Illness states, We believe that mental health conditions are important to discuss year-round, but highlighting them during Mental Illness Awareness Week provides a dedicated time for mental health... advocates across the country to come together as one unified voice. Congress officially established the first full week of October as Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW) in 1990, and since then advocates have highlighted this time to educate the public about mental illness through personal stories while also debunking myths, common misconceptions and stereotypes around specific diagnoses. @NAMICommunicate. #MentalIllnessAwarenessWeek #MIAW Art can be a powerful vehicle for communicating this message as well. We’ve been inspired by Emelie Hryhoruk, Contemporary Well-being Artist in England, who has been using her paintings to manage depressive symptoms related to a perinatal mood and anxiety disorder--postpartum depression--as well as pandemic anxiety. She shares, "When I paint, I am fully absorbed in the moment and the feelings this promotes. On reflection, the process is what brought me out of my depression. She has received counseling and emotional support from the UK-based mental health charity called Mind while creating The Empowered Collection based on DC Comics superhero characters, where she "throw[s] down the brightest colours" to escape the "black cloud that was smothering me." For those struggling she adds, No matter how dark your life is, the colour will always come back - the radiance of the colours I choose to work with lift me and instil positive feelings and calm...I hope the [images] help people tap into their own inner superhero to find their strength. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-52559174 "I Am Strong" painting by Emelie Hryhoruk

One fun and fulfilling way of reducing stress and cultivating a mindfulness practice along with a more positive perspective is through gratitude journaling. Our 2nd Art of Gratitude Journaling workshop is scheduled for 10.21.20 at 7:30p with Mountainside Treatment Center Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/introduction-to-the-art-of-gra

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. It was first declared by President Ronald Reagan on October 15, 1988, when he announced: When parents lose their child, there isn’t a word to describe them. This month recognizes the loss so many parents experience across the United States and around the world. It is also meant to inform and provide resources for parents who have lost children due to miscarriage...stillbirths, birth defects, SIDS, and other causes. Last... week celebrity couple Chrissy Teigen and John Legend bravely announced on social media their loss due to pregnancy complications, further de-stigmatizing the often taboo subject, despite the fact that about 1 in 5 women who become pregnant will experience a miscarriage. OB-GYN Wendy Goodhall McDonald MD discusses the complicated emotional aftermath of pregnancy loss, especially when trying to conceive again. She offers, There is comfort in knowing that miscarriages are rare, but at the same time, common. Many people will not experience a miscarriage, and even fewer will have more than one. It is equally important to remember that if you do miscarry, you are among a multitude of women who have experienced the same thing and still have gone on to have very healthy pregnancies in the future. To manage anxiety in subsequent pregnancies, she recommends reframing worries using affirmations with empowering statements such as I am doing all that I can to create a healthy environment for my growing child and I am learning how to trust my body. She also recommends regular exercise to maintain an optimal fitness level, boost endorphins, and reduce stress. Moreover, she notes, Therapy can be additionally helpful during pregnancy and postpartum as the hormones of pregnancy and the life changes and upheaval a new baby brings can have a profound effect on your emotions. The use of art therapy can be particularly helpful in processing and adjusting to difficult life circumstances since art-making with a compassionate witness to hold the space can add an additional tool for understanding the physical, emotional and spiritual challenges encountered by those grieving unexpected loss, especially when the experience feels too painful, confusing, or recent to articulate verbally. #neverbestill I Had a Miscarriage Art by Kimothy Joy

Just one week away from this donation-based, fun, experiential art workshop and we can't wait! Register here: https://www.luminousmindsproject.com//creative-coping-work

Whether or not one considers themselves to be political, there’s no denying the collective tension felt around the country as debates are underway and voting via absentee ballot has already begun. Although last month the 2020 census counting effort was scheduled to close today, there has been a call from artists, activists, and philanthropists to re-extend the deadline for another month to avoid undercounting many underserved communities. Omitting them will skew political... representation, government funding (including crucial arts and arts education dollars), and essential services for every person in every community in the country for the next 10 years. Moreover, Roughly four out of 10 households have not participated in the census, and rates are lower for people the census historically undercounts: Black, Indigenous, and people of color, disabled people, immigrants, LGBTQIA+ people, and low-income and homeless populations. This article urges a call to artivism to creatively encourage those in underrepresented communities to take the 10 minutes needed to complete their census so that they are literally and figuratively seen and counted. Tips include sharing your own story through personal video and infographics, utilize artist-generated action plans like #BeCounted2020 Census Campaign and Art+Action Coalition’s COME TO YOUR CENSUS, or using your own creative medium to to spark awareness and interest and connect people to the census on a human level. We agree that creatively connecting to a cause like this can help mitigate election anxiety, fuel inspiration for innovative content, and empower one to feel like they are an active participant in our current democracy. #artivism #BeCounted2020 Image by @icsmilwaukee https://hyperallergic.com//a-call-for-creativity-in-the-/

Over 600 art therapy professionals, students and educators recently participated in an online survey about art therapy in times of crisis facilitated by The American Art Therapy Association. According to its findings, art therapists have been serving as frontline essential workers during the pandemic, whether in person in mental health and medical settings or remotely via telehealth. Indeed, art therapy can be particularly effective during times of crisis, especially in ...Continue reading

Our next public, arts-based workshop is on Oct 12 at 8p EST where we'll be exploring some ways in which creativity can reconnect us with ourselves and others in this age of social distancing and digital overload. Registration is donation-based and all are welcome, regardless of artistic background: https://www.luminousmindsproject.com//creative-coping-work

Today is the fall equinox, and shorter days with colder temperatures call for an increase in our self care regimens. This article recommends several, creative body-based wellness tips including practicing mindful breathing, making seasonal, soul-warming soups, indulging in pumpkin-inspired drinks infused with vitamin A and a healthy dose of neuromarketing to appeal to our senses, trying new forms of outdoor, socially distanced exercise like nordic-pole walking or pickleball, ...feathering our nests with dried botanicals like pine cones and seed pods, and making s’mores in a backyard fire pit. Our favorite recommendations include learning hands-on, cozy activities like crochet, a repetitive, calming craft that is a gorgeously forgiving medium, and finding safe, family-friendly volunteer opportunities to give back to our communities and help neighbors since we’ve all felt helpless and hopeless in different moments of this global pandemic. Last but not least, prioritizing meaningful relationships is of utmost importance these days, with pandemic-related loneliness and feelings of isolation on the rise. Kim Grevler, a New York-based clinical social worker advises, If you’re feeling lonely and unsettled, don’t blame yourself for that...Use it as ammo to connect more with other people. Each individual can find their own creative coping regimen that works best for them to help fuel them through the colder months and beyond. Photo by Alex Geerts on Unsplash https://www.washingtonpost.com//10-self-care-ideas-help-/