Art Heals: How Creativity Cures the Soul

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Talking about how survivors respond to art therapy, Mike says, “ Most survivors are open to express their feelings through art after a trusting relationship has been formed with their therapist. While museums remain shuttered in many nations, there is science-backed evidence that seeing or making art can play a crucial role in healing our bodies and minds. University Professor at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he is past president of the American Art Therapy Association and the author of several other books including Art As Medicine, Trust the Process, and Creating with Others. In this important collection of essays, both scholastic and less formal, McNiff brings together the key ideas that have animated his pioneering work in expressive arts therapy for over 30 years. Now that I’m retired, I’ve taken that experience to different levels, working in watercolors and pencils, and in each case, the therapeutic value to me probably exceeds whatever value my paintings might have for someone else.

Lemarquis’s book details this new sub-field of “neuroaesthetics” which uses technologies like functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to examine which brain pathways are engaged by either making or contemplating an artwork, and to what extent they are stimulated. Those who are serious about their work and those who may be studying subjects like Art Therapy themselves.His books include Art As Medicine, Imagination in Action , Trust the Process, and Creating with Others.

Many of the artists talked about the motivation for their piece and the effects the making of the art had on them. When revisiting the Water Lilies, in my present condition—vision loss from glaucoma—I slip into a sense of completeness. In the US, the NeuroArts Blueprint from the Aspen Institute and the International Arts + Mind Lab (IAM Lab) at John Hopkins University, launched in September 2020. It will also strike a chord with anyone who has been through something in their lives which has hurt, as grief and loss is covered as well as methods to celebrate life. Both of them through their organisations use art and its therapeutic nature to help the survivors, heal.Before I met the survivors, I didn’t even know that human trafficking existed, and now I have dedicated my life to the recovery of trafficking survivors for the past 15 years. There is plenty of substantive material in this multi-splendored tribute to the imagination as a healing instrument. As Lemarquis explains, the art-activated areas of our brains that light up when both making or contemplating art, release hormones and neurotransmitters when stimulated, which are beneficial to our health and make us feel good. All the imagery harks back to the main theme of healing and the variety of ways that can be portrayed. This year, to join with Healing Arts New York, a city-wide activation taking place during the UN General Assembly, we’ve added contributions from five extraordinary collaborators: Christopher Bailey, arts and health lead at the World Health Organization; Rebecca Love, a creative arts therapist specializing in dance/movement therapy; Sabrina Sarro, a licensed master social worker; Atira Tan, a somatic trauma specialist; and M.