Practice What You Preach

Recently in my work with mentally ill and chemically addicted patients I aided a patient in a breakthrough of sorts. At work I am able to do three Art Therapy groups a week, where patients get to process and express all the things they are going through and learning in a different way. For those patients who respond well to the group art therapy I encourage them to keep a sketchbook and continue to draw, especially when they are feeling overwhelmed by emotions that they usually deal with by using heroin or percocet or (fill in the blank). Recently, one of my patients discovered that he not only loves to draw, but that he is also quite gifted at it. Being in a line of work where the arts are long forgotten, he had no previous opportunity to discover this gift. This patient has a myriad of mental health concerns and has admitted to the fact that he uses substances when he is overwhelmed with certain feelings or memories. He discovered that drawing not only makes him feel calm, but is the only thing that stops his hands from the constant shaking that has developed because of his traumas. I have been overwhelmed by gratitude for being able to be a part of such a discovery. Will this new discovered gift save my patient? Who knows. But to actually have a patient find a safe place for all the overwhelming crap in his head. That is why I do what I do.

Creativity and art making are certainly the outlet that I found for dealing with feelings and emotions that I couldn't quite get a handle on. It is curious that even though in my daily work I am always encouraging patients to try creativity as a coping mechanism that I often forget to do it for myself.

To be perfectly honest life has been a bit of a struggle lately. I am quickly approaching 30 and feel that I have very little to show for it. I regret sometimes the education that has placed me under a mountain of debt in a society that cannot compensate me for that education. Sometimes I think perhaps I am just not very capable. As the insecurities grow and escalate, the funny thing is that it always boils down to an insecurity about my appearance. Perhaps in my twisted mind my physical appearance is an easy scapegoat for how I am feeling about the world.

Then, while watching an episode of Mad Men last night, I realized that it is not just me. American women have always been in a position to somehow project their identities to their looks. If you are pretty you will be loved, find a man to marry you, get a good job, have people do nice things for you, etc., etc.. I would like to think that women have evolved since the sixties, but it seems to me we really have not come very far. Women still go to extreme lengths to modify their appearance so as to get a leg up in the world.

Watching Mad Men also reiterated the fact that even the most beautiful women still struggle with feeling insecure about their appearance. No matter what your aesthetic appeal to the world all women seem to feel inadequate at one point or another.

This past week I have been feeling especially insecure about how I look. If only I weighed less. If only my hair were blonde. If only my breasts were bigger. If only my legs were smaller. If only, if only, if only . . . then what? So, in an effort to practice what I preach I sat down with some paint to expel some of that anxious energy. I chose a small 3x3 canvas and just painted whatever that energy commanded to. The picture above is the result of that expulsion. And I have to say, it absolutely made me feel better. I am in awe of not only how well it releases some of the negative energy, but also how the perspective it gives me makes me realize how "silly" it is to feel the way I am feeling. Or rather, that it simply is not so bad as I may be feeling.

What an exceptional epiphany to have - that life is manageable. I get so stuck sometimes in feeling overwhelmed, or not knowing what to do. I am realizing more and more as I get older that just DOING is sometimes the best medicine. And for me, working on something creative is the best kind of doing.

The Marriage of Art and Science

Recently, on my path to try and figure out how to further promote Creative Art Therapies within the science world, I have stumbled upon what feels like an emergent epiphany. It seems people of science are realizing more and more the implications that art has in support of science - and vice versa. People have long known the importance of Art and Science, but more and more people are exploring if there is a relationship between the two and what exactly that relationship may look like.

There are two books which I have recently read that seem to epitomize the above mentioned epiphany. I have a feeling, however, books like this will be showing up more and more.

The first book is called "Proust was a Neuroscientist", by Jonah Lehrer (a young man, less than one year older than me). The book explores various artists across a large span of different art forms and how their works exemplify recent studies in Neuroscience. The way Proust wrote was quite radical and unique during his time. His most well known work was a 4,300 page, seven volume work entitled, In Search of Lost Time. Proust worked on this piece for over ten years and was constantly changing and editing the piece until the day he died. One of the longest works in World Literature, its descriptions of characters would change (a mole on the left side by the lips in one chapter would move to the upper right side of the face in another) amidst a changing, nebulous and inconsistent story line. Through this unique and strange masterpiece, Proust coined the term involuntary memory, a concept which postulated that cues encountered in everyday life evoke recollections of the past without conscious effort.

Proust's concept of memory and his search for its origins in the brain were not necessarily unique, and it is such musings of the nature of memory that are the basis of the Neuroscientific work of men like Dr. Kausik Si, who, like Proust (and perhaps as influenced by Proust) speculated about the nature of memory and believes to have found its "synaptic mark" on the brain. This "mark" Si found through research was something called cytoplasmic polyandenylation element binding protein - or CPEB. Through research on sea slugs, Si found that removing this protein disengaged completely the entire function of the sea slugs memory.

Would Dr. Si have ever pondered memory if artists had not explored the concept first? I suppose there is no way to know for sure but I will reference the next book as my defense that Dr. Si relied on those artists to do his work.

"Art and Physics", by Leonard Shlain, is a 437 page book dedicated solely to exploring Art and Physics and their "parallel visions in space, time and light" (as the subtitle states). In the opening chapter Shlain states that "Revolutionary art and visionary physics are both investigations into the nature of reality". He goes on to state that "[b]ecause the erosion of images by words occurs at such an early age, we forget that in order to learn something new, we need to first imagine it". Expanding on this concept he discusses how "[a]rtists have mysteriously incorporated into their works features of a physical description of the world that science later discovers" (which is the entire premise of the aforementioned book by Lehrer). I believe Shlain in saying this (perhaps not intentionally) is defining art in a very straightforward way. What is good art? My interpretatin of "Art and Physics" is that good art is art that prepares and directs the future - Like Proust or Cezanne. Art seeks to express what cannot be explained and Physics seeks to explain what has been expressed.

If one is to accept Shlain's notion of Art and Physics and glean some importance from the underlying statement of Lehrer - it seems to me that one must accept the importance of art not as a culmination of things passed - but as a torch to follow for the building of our future.

These books portray a very large scope - society and mankind as a whole. But what does this mean for the individual? If we hone into the individual implications of these concepts, I believe we find a huge argument for the necessity of art therapy. By creating art therapeutically (or non-therapeutically for that matter) one is expressing something that perhaps cannot be explained. But perhaps by creating and expressing the unexplainable in our own lives we may eventually come to logically explain it. Emotion is very hard to describe or understand, and it is mostly through visual cues that we are even able to distinguish emotions in others. Because we see - from outside of ourselves - what laughter, sadness and happiness look like we are therefore able not only to understand, but to explain it ourselves.

Much of psychotherapy involves a changing of the mind, whether by expansion of thought, divergence of thought processes or a changing of behaviors. If we take to heart Shlain's theory that "in order to learn something new, we need to first imagine it," we have a perfect argument in the case for art therapy. By creating art we are first imagining and perhaps by doing this in Art Therapy one can increase or speed up the likelihood of learning something new or changing a mindset that has held captive the ability to move forward.

Art Therapy is an individualized journey to make art and inform the science of self. Every person who is an art therapist must appreciate and have a deeply rooted connection to the expression of art and the exploration of science. The art therapist seeks to first express the unexplainable questions within the mind ("who am I?", "why am I the way I am", etc.) in a tangible, external way and then seeks to logically explain those questions through what is essentially the scientific method. How could this be anything but essential and necessary to the field of mental health - or the field of medicine in general?

I can feel in the depths of my being that science and art are courting. I truly hope they take their relationship to the next level soon - or we at least acknowledge the union that has clearly been there all along ;)

Paul Bach-y-Rita

Who is Paul Bach-y-Rita you ask? Well, he is noted as one of the first Neuroscientists to explore neuroplasticity in depth. I decided to write about him because he proves as a good example of how science seems actually scared of change more often than we'd like to believe. Think back to Galileo, a pioneer of the Scientific Revolution who was scoffed at for believing that the earth was not, in fact, the center of the universe. Though he had carefully and precisely constructed instruments that could support his claim it took a lot of time, ridicule and opposition before he was able to convince the scientific world what he found to be true. People simply don't like change, even if it can be for the better.

So, back to Dr. Bach-y-Rita. Waaaaaay back in the year 1969 - over 30 years ago - Dr. Bach-y-Rita constructed a machine, which was attached to a camera (picture those big honking studio cameras with a seat for the operator) and this machine allowed blind people to experience sight. People who had never been able to see were suddenly able to see through his substituting tactile sensory input for the missing or malfunctioned ocular system. The tactile system was able to communicate what the ocular system could not. This work Bach-y-Rita did with the blind in the seeing machine led him to the conclusion that the brain was not, in fact, static as was the belief at the time, but the brain was plastic and could change even in adulthood. I am astounded at the fact that this was done in 1969 and am astounded at the fact that I have not heard of this until now. To me, this is the kind of research we should be building off of. So why isn't it in our high school science text books along with Gregor Mandel or Benjamin Franklin?

In 1969 Bach-y-Rita's belief that the brain was plastic, even in adulthood, was seen much the same as Galileo's theory of Heliocentricity back in the early 17th century. It was scoffed at, ridiculed and then just plain ignored. It was not until YEARS later that this theory was accepted. Luckily Bach-y-Rita kept pursuing his scientific study and has helped many people with neurological disorders (such as balance disorders and persons suffering from stroke) recover, sometimes back to 100%. He has been able to do so by building off of his research done with the blind in the seeing machine.

I read about Bach-y-Rita with great interest because I feel a similar opposition from the scientific community trying to prove myself as an Art Therapist and convince people that it is not only beneficial, but needed. I do not even have (at the moment) empirical evidence to stake my claim. (Blerg!) It is, however, incredibly inspirational to hear his story and to know that opposition can sometimes mean you are actually on the right track. He kept pursuing his passion, even when it seemed the world was against him.

Dr. Bach-y-Rita - you are my hero.

To EBP or not to EBP?

As it stands now, Art Therapy is not considered an "evidence-based" therapy - at least not here in Seattle. Evidence-based practice (also called empirically-supported treatment) is an intervention which has been shown empirically to have a significant effect as a treatment for specific issues or illnesses.

In my opinion, and as most other Art Therapists would likely agree - Art Therapy should be considered evidence based. I don't know if there has not been enough research, or if the research has not been "significant" enough, but I intend to get to the bottom of it.

I'd love to hear arguments/examples of how you have seen evidence of Art Therapy's effectiveness.

For my example I would like to provide a story from my first internship while at Pratt. It is by no means the only one I have, and perhaps I will ad more later on.

I was working at a preschool which comprised of many children who were on the Autism spectrum. There I did one-on-one therapy with a particularly low-functioning three year-old Autistic boy with a tendency to scratch, head-butt or hit. This child was almost completely non-verbal, but luckily, as an art therapist in training, I was being taught how to do therapy utilizing non-verbal communication. During our sessions I focused a lot on getting the child into his physical body in the hopes of helping to get some of his aggressive energies out. I did a lot of mirroring and simply tried to engage him. We worked a lot with modeling sand and toy animals and I would make the animal sounds according to the animal he was working with. Eventually he would have to make the sound of the animal before I would make the sound. In this way he learned to associate objects. His favorite sound for me to make was the elephant.
By the end of the year he went every session without any physical outburst. I worked with him for a year and by the end of the year the child was relating to me with lots of eye contact and was able to separate me from other teachers. Whenever he would see me he would make the sound of the elephant he loved to hear me make. This alone, I felt, was a huge accomplishment, as Autism by its definition is characterized by an impairment in the ability to relate and interact socially.
Not only was he relating to me, but by the end of the year his vocabulary had gone from one or two words to about fifty. I cannot take credit for his speech improvements, as he was seeing a Speech therapist during that year, but I truly believe that the work we did in our Art Therapy sessions only supported and enhanced his experiences in Speech Therapy. This boy's improvement in speech and relatedness are significant enough, in my opinion, to argue the importance of Art Therapy - but one year later I would discover something even more remarkable.
One year after I had stopped working with this boy (a huge one fourth of this boys life) I came back to the school, where he still attended. When I saw the boy his eyes immediately lit up and he made the elephant sound he had associated with me nearly TWO YEARS before. He had not only remembered me, but remembered the association he had given me. I found this to be an utterly astounding accomplishment.
I know that for this experience to be quantified as "evidence-based" I would have to take this child and eliminate all the variables that were involved in the form of other treatments and other people with whom he was working. If nothing else, however, this example could be used to argue the necessity of more research to be done on the effectiveness of Art Therapy. This boy had related to me and essentially "named" me and been able to do so in his long-term memory - something which he had not done with any other person in the school. So, I at least know that there was something significant in our relationship, and happen to believe that it had to do with the Art Therapy we did together.

I know it is a difficult thing to try and show empirically what is typically thought of as almost metaphysical, but with all the technology out there today I know there is something that can be done in research to help advocate for the efficacy of Art Therapy. Almost anyone who practices or has participated in Art Therapy knows it is extremely beneficial. My biggest argument in the case for Art Therapy (or any Creative Arts Therapy like Dance, Music, etc.) is that it is essentially a specialization in non-verbal communication within Psychotherapy. An expertise in non-verbal communication, to me, would obviously be most helpful with children or with people with acute mental illnesses who are so verbally guarded.

I think Western medicine is not as far along as we Art Therapists or other Creative Art Therapists would like to think. I think we still have a long way to go in the fight to be taken seriously as a substantial, psychotherapeutically relevant treatment. I, for one, look forward to working towards a day when Art Therapists are given the equal respect (and pay ;)) we deserve in the medical community.

First Art & Therapy Blog

Welcome to my new blog. As you may find out from my Blogger profile, I have two other blogs as well. These two are more my own self exploration through dreams, writing and photography. This blog I hope will be more informative as well as provide a forum for discussion.

Recently, I graduated from Pratt Institute's Art Therapy program and moved back to Seattle (because though I absolutely LOVED New York, Seattle is simply home). Here I seem to have discovered that Seattle seems a bit behind (by ten or twenty years) in accepting Art Therapy as a viable profession in the mental health field. I find this very frustrating (mainly because it makes it difficult for me to find a job) and am determined to enlighten Seattle's medical world as to the benefits of Art Therapy. How do I plan to do this, you ask?

1) I created this blog, where I will write little articles on my personal experiences, summarize relevant points in books or articles that I am reading and try to generate discussion from anyone who is interested.

2) I am working on a research paper which will also serve as a basis for writing an educational grant which I hope will help me get funding and acceptance into the University of Washington's Neurobiology program where I can do some physical research on the effects of art therapy on the brain. Before I do this I'm going to have to try and get a hold of everything I can that is written on this subject so as not to be unnecessarily repetitive (If you know of anything, SEND IT MY WAY!!)

3) I am hoping th research paper will also serve later on (along with whatever research I have been able to do which substantiates my claim) as a basis for a working grant as well so I can establish an Art Therapy program at one of the big hospitals here in Seattle. But this is only the penultimate dream for my vision of Art Therapy in Seattle.

4) My ultimate dream for Art Therapy in Seattle would be to promote it enough to the point where the University of Washington (which is already well established in both Art and Medicine) starts an Art Therapy program. And who knows, maybe I could be a professor some day in that program.

So, you know my plan. I know it is dreaming big, but its my plan and I hope you enjoy following me on my journey :)