What is the best way to use art and creativity to help mental health? Is there even one best way, or are there many, each one as different as the individuals experiencing mental health issues? Is it best to focus on art expressing thoughts and feelings, maybe visualizing a scene or using colour to sum up how you feel? Is it best to try journaling, or to record mood, or sand play? Is it best to draw or paint something totally unconnected with these issues?
So many questions – and every single one opens up another. What about therapeutic models and techniques, such as the Feelings Wheel (used a lot now in schools) or the Therapeutic Spiral Model, used particularly with trauma? What about using famous paintings to open up conversations and reflections on mental health? How can the different arts interlink? How can art interplay with particular therapy and counselling models, such as person-centered therapy or CBT? And is using art specifically to improve mental health entirely different from using art for overall wellbeing? Might the two sometimes be closer than we think?
You might be wondering why I’m thinking about all this just now. I’ve been working as a freelance arts for wellbeing practitioner for over three years now, and I’m about to build on what I’m doing.
A new year can feel like a blank slate. That’s exciting, or daunting – or it might feel like just another day. I always like the idea of a fresh start, even if little changes. This year I am starting something new. I’ve been awarded funds by Arts Council England’s Developing Your Creative Practice Fund, and my development project – Paint Your Mind: Art As Tool – starts on 2 January. Over the next six months I’ll be listening, looking and learning, focusing on how art can help mental health specifically.
As part of this I’ll be running two art for wellbeing challenges, one in February and one in April. But I’ll also be researching how art is used for mental health, and asking for people’s views – participants and also practitioners and counsellors.
So I’ll be asking myself, and anyone who’ll listen, some or all of the questions here. I hope I’ll gain a more solid foundation for my future work. And I hope I’ll develop something new too, in response. Part of my time will be spent creating a body of new artwork to use or mental healtj, like a toolbox or toolkit. What would you create if you were trying to do just that? Probably everyone would go about this differently. I’m feeling my way, and one focus to start with will be comparing figurative and abstract art.
There are so many questions about how art helps mental health, but there are also many questions about mental health itself, and so many different issues and causes and impacts. What helps someone with OCD might be no help for someone with depression, and every person with OCD or depression will respond differently. Yes, it’s obvious, but it needs to be remembered.
Do you have any thoughts on any of these questions? Or maybe you have other questions of your own? It would be great if you’d like to share – just go to Medley’s Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/359291215486002 Thank you. Or email me at medleymusicartnature@outlook.com