The Arts, Creative Therapies, and Why They Matter
Children rarely worry about whether they are creative or not. They draw, paint, sing, dance, tell stories and don’t think about whether their creations are good or bad. Sadly, in many cultures, there comes a moment, often in early adolescence, when adults (parents, teachers, older siblings) start to evaluate what the child is creating and judge its worth. The dreaded word “talent’ gets assigned (or not) to children, and they get steered towards or away from the arts. At the same time, familial, educational, and societal values get pulled in and children get taught to see the arts as either meaningful pursuits, pleasant hobbies, or pointless distractions. At this point, The Great Segregation happens, and children and teenagers start to see themselves as either creative, or not.
‘‘Children rarely worry about whether they are creative or not.
They draw, paint, sing, dance, tell stories and don’t think about whether their creations are good or bad.’’
Before training as an expressive arts therapist, my undergraduate degree was in Archaeology and Anthropology. Throughout my studies, it became very clear that creativity is a fundamental human characteristic, and not something only certain special people have. When you look at the earliest artifacts left behind by our ancestors, they are overwhelmingly of no practical value. Palaeolithic cave paintings, clay figurines, drums, beads, and flutes made from bones have no intrinsic value in terms of our physical survival, but the creative and imaginative processes that developed through making these items were essential in terms of the evolution of our minds that ultimately allowed us to develop agriculture, architecture, industry, and commerce. Without our ancestors’ ability to make pigments that they used to create powerful and mysterious art in secret underground locations around the globe, or to figure out the steps needed to make a drum, we wouldn’t have our smart phones!
Of course, the arts also have value in their own right. Throughout history and around the world, the arts bring communities together, strengthening essential social connections and identities. The stories of our ancestors are recorded and shared through mythic tales, songs, dances, art, and rituals. Connection is vital for our wellbeing (and even for our very survival), as the recent pandemic highlighted.
As an expressive arts therapist, I also understand (both personally and professionally) how the intentional use of creative practices in the service of people’s healing and growth can be so much more effective than traditional talk therapies. The roots of creative therapies began early in the 1900’s in both Europe and North America. In the UK, artist Adrian Hill set up art studios in hospitals and invited patients (some with severe mental health issues such as schizophrenia, and some veterans returning from war with what was then termed ‘shell shock’, but what we would likely now term ‘Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder’ or PTSD) to join him and his colleagues in a variety of artmaking activities. He had no psychological training, but it quickly became apparent how effective artmaking was in helping people manage their symptoms, regulate their nervous systems, and start to form healthy connections with each other. They told their stories, explored their dreams and nightmares, and started to imagine different futures through creative self-expression and exploration. This was the birth of art therapy as a profession, and similar movements were happening with musicians, writers, dancers, and actors taking their arts practices into such settings. As these professions developed, psychological theory and practice was integrated into the artistic practices, but, at the heart of each approach, there is the understanding that engaging in creativity is fundamentally healing and supports wellbeing, self-expression, connections, and growth.
‘‘…engaging in creativity is fundamentally healing and supports wellbeing, self-expression, connections, and growth.’’
Many people coming to The Woods have experienced trauma. Over the last fifteen years or so, advances in neuroscience have highlighted how traumatic experiences change how the brain and nervous system develops and functions, especially when these experiences happen in childhood or adolescence, or over a long period of time. For example, MRI’s show that trauma can impair the growth and functioning of the corpus callosum, a bundle of nerve fibres that connect the left and right hemispheres of the brain. In a healthy brain, the corpus callosum aids communication between these two hemispheres, allowing the brain to function as an integrated and cohesive whole. However, when impaired due to trauma, these two hemispheres don’t connect with each other as they should. This can mean that, when something happens in the here-and-now that unconsciously reminds us of our traumatic experiences, the bodymind (I use this term as they are not separate parts of us) reacts as though the trauma is happening right now (rather than being something that is being remembered) and this can lead to intense flashbacks or trauma responses such as urges to fight, flight, freeze or appease.
Fortunately, we now also know that engaging in creative and imaginative activities can start to repair the corpus callosum over time and in the presence of a trusted therapist (and other participants if working in group therapy). We can also start to tell our stories safely and gently through colours, shapes, images, drumming, singing, poetry and movement, allowing us to step away from the intense internal experiences we might have and to gain some distance and perspective. These creative therapies have also been shown to be highly effective for issues such as anxiety, depression, addictions, eating disorders, and attachment disorders.
For those of you who may be intrigued by working creatively, but don’t quite feel ready for individual sessions with a therapist, you might like to join one of our weekly Open Art Studio sessions that focus on visual artmaking, or a group session with Jenny Gilmour, resident music therapist at The Woods. You might also be interested to read more about the neuroscience of art and music in one of these excellent publications:
No experience in the arts is necessary for you to seek support from an expressive therapist, and all of us at The Woods are also trained in counselling psychology and can offer traditional ‘talk therapy’ if that feels like a gentler way to start your healing journey. However, we also all believe in how healing engaging in the arts can be. In a recent training that I did with internationally acclaimed psychologist and expressive arts therapist Dr Cathy Malchiodi (who works extensively with children and adults who have experienced trauma, including veterans and first responders), she stated that “talk therapy alone is not enough for true healing” and her work over many decades stands as testament to this.
If you would like to learn more, please book a free 20-minute video consultation with one of the therapists at The Woods and we would be delighted to answer your questions.
