Art Is Healing

Art is always included in the retreats I have participated in since retirement. Why? Art is healing and everyone needs some healing. I am not a watercolor artist or any other artist. This piece above was made with paint pencils, water, and a brush once the pencil outlined and added color.

I think you can tell I am not an artist, but to make it even more clear to you, I used tracing paper for this picture. When I got home, I realized I hadn't water colored the yellow flower. It took me the whole class time to do the rest. And wouldn't an artist have noticed that was missing?

Some others in the group had two pieces finished and they free handed their pictures.

I walked away with this piece of art, calmness, and serenity that comes from time spent with art. Writing will give me this too. That is why I try to write every day.

You may be able to tell that I am not a photographer either. I painted the painting above in 2016. We had another artist's photo of this. Mine looked different than hers as did all 12 of us. Some were closer than others, however.

I have been to other retreats where other forms of art were made. Jewelry, and others. Some art is always a part of the time spent at a grief retreat or healing retreat that I am involved in.

Art can be a powerful tool in healing from trauma and grief123. It can help by:

Expressing emotions that are hard to put into words1

Providing a tool to express extreme emotions1

Providing a break from grief, awakening a child-like spirit and providing the opportunity for play1

Increasing serotonin, which helps fight depression1

Giving a feeling of empowerment, capability, and freedom that your grief tragedy may have robbed from you2

Reinforcing for you the resiliency of humans2

Helping you experience catharsis (cleansing or purging) of intense emotional pain2

Influencing how we look at, unblock, wrestle with, and shed light on the need to distance and detach from our pain3

Inviting the imagination of these stuck places to come to the surface in images, movement, color, and sound3

Learn more:

1. griefstories.org

2. recover-from-grief.com

3. goodtherapy.org

I haven't taught the art groups and I am not an art therapist. You can say we will have art therapy, only if you are an art therapist in my state. I would never say that.

I learned a lot from an art therapist that I worked with in a substance abuse program I worked at. My sister was an artist and had some training in art therapy and I learned a few things from her also. Most of it I have used when working with kids.

Science today is shifting to a right-brain therapy approach based on the importance of relationship and subjectivity versus the traditional left-brain therapy approach based on insight. Secure attachment and right brain communication are now considered more helpful to healing.

Trauma and Right Brain Healing - Good Griever

goodgriever.com/trauma-and-right-brain-healing/

Storytelling is what I do oftentimes when working with a group or at times with individuals. I will give them an example of stories I was told growing up and how they were often told without an ending to the story or not told how the story may apply to me.

My mother told this to five of her children while picking berries in the full sun. Nanaboozhoo stories are only meant to be told when there is snow on the ground and some say when it is dark. Nanaboozhoo is the Ojibwe trickster. The Dakota trickster is Iktomi.

Other tricksters are the Coyote, the Raven, the Wolf, the Fox, Mink, Blue Jay and others, depending on the tribe.

I figured out that the snow on the ground thing and the at dark thing is probably because there is a lot of work to do to prepare for winter in other seasons of the year and even in winter during the day, there is lots to do.

Now the story: Nanaboozhoo was walking through the woods when a small black critter came out of the brush and scared Nanaboozhoo. He quickly tapped the critter on the top of the head and the back end and just that quick he got a white stripe down his back and an odor like no other!

That was the end of the story. We were supposed to figure out how that story applied to us.

When we got home, our aunt was there. My mother's sister was 14 years older than her. She laughed and said, "Your mother is afraid of bears and that is why she told you that story. She wants you kids to make noise in the woods so that no bears come around to get your berries."

She then hesitated and said, "Your mother would fight a bear for those berries."

Music is also a helpful tool. The last retreat had two of my mother's favorite songs on the playlist and a song that my ex-husband used to dance to. It occurred to me that I had some unfinished business when those songs were played.

I didn't know they would be on the playlist as someone else created that playlist.

Laugh, Dance, Meditation and Exercise - We almost always have yoga (laughter yoga is sampled), plays or skits, some that include dance i.e. Dancing Queens, and meditation walks.

Being a right-brain healer makes for a better, happier healer and is a lot about letting go and having fun!

I always tell counselors that it is very important to do your own healing work if you want to be able to help the people you work with. Somehow the program participant will know what you can handle and what you can't.

They won't tell you things you haven't worked on yourself. Empathy is helpful. Sympathy is not in the counseling/therapy role.