Art Changes Hearts

After losing my optimism, nearly 12 years of memory, and my hope all over again, I sat on my apartment floor and painted what I then entitled #6. After my sixth concussion from yet another freak accident, my brain could not produce the words to express my hopelessness. With a reality almost as painful as the chaos in my head, I used abstract art to express the emotions I couldn't articulate.

This cathartic experience prompted me to look into art therapy, a growing practice in the United States. Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy that encourages people to freely express themselves through painting. The practice is helpful with psychotherapy because it provides an outlet for patients to work through trauma and recognize their feelings through their own art expression.

I love art because wherever you go in the world there are different styles, tools, and ways cultures express themselves. I wondered, “what if the principles of art therapy could help with mental or emotional health worldwide?” How surprised I was to find almost no international mention of art therapy in my research. Patients in every country could benefit from using an art medium that is familiar to them and consistent with their culture in order to heal trauma.

My dream has always been to travel internationally to help people like a doctor can, but internationally-versatile occupations such as those in the medical field have never appealed to me. Still, I sought the ability to serve people worldwide, and I found it with art therapy. Art therapy, rather than pushing a foreign practice on another culture, uses familiar and accessible psychotherapy tools to help people work through trauma and express their feelings through their own art expression.

This past summer I volunteered in a refugee camp in Malawi Africa and witnessed the dire need for psychological help due to their unfathomable trauma. I want to help that trauma and heartache that fills refugee camps, sex trafficking rehabilitation centers, and villages weighed down by poverty all over the world. I know that seems like an overly-ambitious goal, but I also know that one person at a time, and one painting at a time, art therapy has the potential to improve someone's mental circumstance.

My goal is to create a team of art therapists that could be paired with international organizations who are assisting people with emotional or mental trauma. The art therapists would train local people so that in time they could help their community and train others around them to be local art therapists. Passing on knowledge in this way allows this intervention to not be reliant on continuous donations because once therapists are trained, they can use their local assets to assist those in need.

A possible means to financially sustain an art therapy organization internationally would be the sale of some of the patient art pieces. With minimal international interference once the program is established, this intervention could promote long-term self-reliance and resilience.