Therapy sessions—in groups or with individuals—provide time for engaging all the senses and integrating these aesthetic experiences so that participants can reimagine and rework established neural pathways to establish new ways of seeing, thinking, and experiencing. For me, in the beginnings of trauma recovery, art helped me to communicate what I couldn’t find words for and allowed me to be with the painful reality of trauma in a way that didn’t consume me. Similarly, science has shown we feel a “distance” from artwork reproduced on a screen, compared to being in its physical presence. 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. In living with autoimmune illnesses and chronic pain, art has helped me to be with my symptoms in a different way.

One of my favorite lines from Julia Cameron’s bestselling book The Artist’s Way is “Paintings wait for us. I also made a contribution to the playlist, finding connections between Dorothea Tanning’s dreamlike world and my own experiences.Afterward, participants reported feeling more positive, less stressed, less anxious, and more self-confident. In addition, the art therapy session was the first time that some participants had a chance to process the psychological and existential challenges of dealing with cancer. In the future, the definition of therapy is poised to expand beyond talk therapy alone, and art therapy will be recognized as a cost-effective and sustainable psychosocial treatment option.

I believe that art is very practical and the lesser you say about the better it is (unless you want to less it but that’s another story). Hear Christopher Bailey reflect on his personal history with Claude Monet’s Water Lilies over many decades. Esoterica: The American Art Therapy Association (AATA) is dedicated to the idea that the creative process and art-making are healing and life enhancing. Your dad’s entire letter, this subject and all the comments have my heart racing from excitement and my head nodding in agreement.In this book, Shaun McNiff--a leader in expressive arts therapy for more than three decades--reflects on a wide spectrum of activities aimed at reviving art's traditional healing function. MD, PhD ∗; Khan, Hijab BS, MPH ∗; Steele, Morgan RN ∗; Jing, Zhe MD, MPH ∗; Attwood, Kristopher PhD ∗; Lin-Hill, Joe PhD †; Davidson, Russell MA †; Guru, Khurshid A.

A worldwide community of artists receive these letters for inspiration, discussion, friendship and connectivity. Adrenaline and cortisone can be activated so as to have an invigorating effect on the body, or on the contrary, they can be blocked for a relaxing effect, depending on the artwork.Caregivers reported patients became more mobile when exposed to their chosen artwork, which leads to improved healing in those cases. Other scholars and I have asserted that art making is an integral part of human functioning, and that it helps humans survive.