Art Therapy Healing Memory Loss. Valerie Valdez. California State University Monterey Bay

Transcription

1 ART THERAPY HEALING MEMORY LOSS 1 Art Therapy Healing Memory Loss Valerie Valdez California State University Monterey Bay

2 ART THERAPY HEALING MEMORY LOSS 2 Art Therapy Healing Memory Loss Art therapy is defined by a form of psychotherapy that uses self-expression through painting or drawing which is intended to heal or calm a person. Art can permeate the very deepest part of us, where no words exist. (Alieen, 2007) Overtime art has been used in a variety of ways. Realist, romantics, as well as surrealist painters expressed their deepest thoughts about the world without words. In present day, people still analyze these famous works of art and are still trying to uncover the deep meaning of each art work. But as years have passed we have seen how art is considered a form of therapy. It has helped individual s struggling with traumatic experiences, memory loss or Alzheimer s dementia, and even to relieve stress. To focus on one aspect, there has been great progress on the study of art therapy helping to heal memory loss patients. Despite art therapies competition to medication, through brush strokes, colors, and the communication of positive reinforcement helps cure memory loss patients. Famous Examples: Art before Medicine Vincent van Gogh, a famous artist from the 1860 s, suffered from mental illness and used creative art instead of medicine to gain a sense of wholeness, self-expansion and growth. In the 1800s, mental illnesses were not taken very seriously. Before mental hospitals opened, a person with a mental illness was usually isolated from others and had to stay home at all times. People who had a family member with a mental illness denied the fact. (Salzter, 2007) During this time, medical advances were not very innovative and people with mental illnesses were clueless, never knowing they were mentally ill. Today

3 ART THERAPY HEALING MEMORY LOSS 3 medicine is used to control most problems people face, but art therapy helps alleviate the stress that comes with the problem. Van Gogh had internal struggles never understanding himself as a person or understanding his mental illness and episodes of bipolar disorder, and used art to cope with these struggles. Van Gogh s art work came out of a struggle to be helpless or helpful. He overcame the struggle by engaging his internal force to a canvas and set his spirits free. Vincent s art reveals the journey of a man who took an inward ascent and found divine order within himself. He achieved complete self-mastery through voluntary suffering. This self-training gave him inner power and purity which provided the psychic strength that brought him closer to the divine light. (Stucke, 2005) The way he engaged his way through art was therapeutic for him because he was able to express all the complications he had onto a canvas. Analysis can see how intricate his choices of color and brush strokes were in helping his express himself. Although Van Gogh suffered from mental illness and not memory loss, he is a prime historic example of how art is therapy. Brush Strokes Evoke Emotion Brush strokes tell a lot about an artist mood and emotions. For instance, Spinner, a journalist from The Washington Post, tells a story about a man who was hit by a roadside bomb during fall day in Iraq. Eric Edmondson, the 26-year-old veteran, was left with shrapnel wounds and brain damage and is no longer able to eat, walk or talk. But he can pick up a paint brush. (Spinner, 2007) His painting would range from beautiful landscapes to mangled vehicles, prisoners and carnage. His brain damage caused him to lose memories about certain events but was not as bad as a normal short-term memory loss patient would

4 ART THERAPY HEALING MEMORY LOSS 4 be. The range of paintings shows the way his memory would go in and out on him. Eric s brush strokes were very distinct in his paintings. He was certain to use an intricate stroke when painting landscapes and thick stokes when painting prisoners and carnage. Brush strokes helped heal Eric s memory loss because brush strokes evoked emotion. For example, Eric s beautiful landscapes gave him the emotion of happiness, which provided him with memory he was lacking of all the great things in his life before his traumatic event took place. Contrasting, his painting that used thick strokes resulted in his remembrance of how he became so disabled. Even though regaining memory comes with the remembrance of the good and bad, art therapy provides educated therapist to help move on from the bad and to remember the good. DeSalvo Examples: Focus on Positives In chapter four of Writing as a Way of Healing, DeSalvo has a recurring theme of focusing on the positive to outweigh the negative. A study by Pennebaker discovered that the more people described positive emotion in their writing, the more likely they were to be healthier afterward. But describing negative emotions either excessively or very little or not at all correlated with poorer health. (DeSalvo, 1999) Through journal writing, many traumatic experiences are written about and focused on but without providing a positive look these writers can never actually move on to a healthy lifestyle. Same is true for art work. Negative connotations in art work help people work through their struggle, because it is way of communication but without a positive overview of the painting artist will not be able to focus on what is needed to heal form the experience.

5 ART THERAPY HEALING MEMORY LOSS 5 As stated above, memory loss patients may regain memory of the bad that happened in their lives, not just of random events. If patients focus on all the negative memory remembered, they will never enter the path to healing. DeSalvo s examples of being aware of the negative to move on but to keep the focus on the positive will help these patients push through their struggles by providing them with a victory that they are actually regaining memory. Colors Trigger Memory People seem to remember many things by their color. Remembering color may be important because through the development of human kind it has helps identify and helps objects standout in case of danger. For example, stop signs are red, as well as yellow is used for cautionary signs and posts. Because color helps memory, it allows people to recognize familiar things and faces. (Elvidge, 2012) Feelings about color can also be very personal and can be rooted in one s own experience or culture. But there are certain characteristics and qualities of colors that can be useful when working with memory loss. Although colors may not directly bring back memory loss, they do provide a way of coping with what therapist like to call the four A s. Patients with dementia, Alzheimer, and memory loss often develop anxiety, aggression, agitation, and apathy. (Reynolds, 2009) Art therapist work to help calm these emotions by incorporating color such as red, yellow, orange and blue. Red is used to stimulate the body and mind and to increase circulation (and appetite). Yellow is used to stimulate the nervous system and help focus. Orange is used to heal the lungs and promote energy. Lastly, blue is used to calm and sooth and treat pain. (Elvidge, 2012) Through colors therapist can find a way to help these

6 ART THERAPY HEALING MEMORY LOSS 6 patient cope with their traumatic event and help give them a sense of peace so they can find who they are. Communication Communication is a key component in art therapy sessions because of its way of stimulating the brain. Because art therapy consists of two parts, art and commutative therapy, patients able to draw what pops up in their mind and then communicate this art with a therapist where they are able to dig deep to find flashbacks of memory that is missing. An article about Brandon Tiedt, a young teen struggling with short-term memory loss, tells his story of how art therapy has helped him retrieve memory. Tidet attended a six-week art therapy class, however, the 18- year-old high school graduate has been able to retrieve flashbacks of what he used to be like and of what he's lost. He says the class has given him an opportunity to talk through his emotions and understand himself a little better. (Choo, 2003) Through the program Creative Minds Project, Tiedt would express himself through art and a therapist would help talk over every aspect he had drawn. The Creative Minds Project encouraged one-on-one time with a therapist and to socialize while they work. Jody Zacharuk, FVBIA child and youth case manager, says it was amazing to watch the healing that went on between the kids, when they were talking between themselves. They got to talk to people who have experienced what they're going through and that was very effective." (Choo, 2003) Through art Tiedt is motivated to get back into his old routines and make new friends. He says, "The biggest reason I wanted to go to art class was because I knew there would be other people there. I've made new friends that are dear friends to me now, and I've learned that I can do anything." (Choo, 2003) Lucky for

7 ART THERAPY HEALING MEMORY LOSS 7 Tiedt, this program provided him with specialized therapist that helped him regain memory by talking through all his painting. Pennebaker In Sharing Ones Story by Pennebaker we see how the Pennebaker experiment took place and the success sharing ones story had on that group of people. As we can see, communication is major in healing to heal memory loss. Communication in an art therapy session pertains to the Pennebaker experiment because without communication these patients would not make any progress. Putting upsetting experiences into words allows people to stop inhibiting their thoughts and feelings, to begin to organize their thoughts and perhaps find meaning in their traumas. (Niederhoffer, 2005) Though these patients may not remember their upsetting experiment, they are able to share the art work they have created and what it means to them. Like the people in the experiment, these patients were able to see that expressing emotion brought back feeling that were either gone or loss because of the memory loss. Conclusion The utilization of art as therapy has transformed lives and works to improve these patients lifestyle. The act of creating, the movement involved in brush strokes, colors, and the communication that is going on between the therapist and the patient provides healing of coping with memory loss as well as regaining of memory loss. Through art therapy a picture from their past comes to life right before their eyes.

8 ART THERAPY HEALING MEMORY LOSS 8 References Alieen, D. (2007). Arts therapy helps memory-loss patients. Retrieved from Choo, A. (2003). The healing power of art therapy: Creative minds project helps young people with memory loss: Cinal edition. The Vancouver Sun, B.4. DeSalvo, L. (1999) Writing As A Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives. Elvidge. (2012, August 26). The psychology of color. Retrieved from Niederhoffer G. K. & Pennebaker W. J. (2005) Sharing One s Story. One the Benefits of Writing or Talking About Emotional Experience. (p.581). In Snyder (Ed.), Positive Psychology Oxford University Press. Reynolds, D. (2009, November 10). Art therapy can improve quality of life for alzheimer s Salzter. (2007, June 05). Treatment of mental illness in the 1800s.Retrieved from Spinner, J. (2007, April 15). War's pain, softened with a brush stroke. Retrieved from patients. Retrieved from s-patients.html

9 ART THERAPY HEALING MEMORY LOSS 9 Stucke, H. (2005). Vincent van gogh from a clinical psycho-art therapy viewpoint. Retrieved from