Holistic Art Therapy for Emotional and Mental Health and Wellbeing

[Jody]

Hi everyone,

After reading some of the posts here, I felt that I wanted to join because from what I have understood about mental health is that its an life long awareness journey, and those of us more sensitive to the experiences we have on this journey, sense and feel more deeply in order to process the levels of it which we do.

From what I have understood so far is that once you get to a certain point in your mental health and wellbeing of either extreme in positive or negative states, it forever becomes a balancing act as it forces you to take control of the responsibility of your being and you need to navigate enduring waters when learning to sink or swim.

Those who know me, are already aware of my life experiences and how they affected my health and wellbeing. For a long time it did not make sense to me why I was having all these experiences thrust upon me, challenging my emotions and mental health, and as a flow on, my physical health.

For a while I was a counsellor and for a lifetime been a full time carer of 5 people - all at once and for decades without support or respite - so when it came to a critical point where I was having PTSD paralysis, sleep disorders, cortisol overloads and various other issues, enough was enough and I had to break away from it all. 

I took my saving grace, which was a life time of self medicated Art Therapy, and turned it into a career  choice when I encountered so many people drifting in and out of their mental health care support and who needed someone to show them a step forward instead of simply shutting down.

Regional and rural areas are so deprived of resources and assistance that people would rather end their lives than suffer the drifting that occurs when you fall between the cracks of lack of services, and unable to finding a connector to alternative options such as Art Therapy. Children and Youth in particular being vulnerable, and this was hammered home to me as a mother of a teenage son who lost 3 mates to suicide in just over one year when he was aged 15, because they could not find the resources to help them manage and deal with their issues at home in their personal lives.

One thing Art Therapy does, is utilise an inner self empowering ability to be creative and engage in that process intuitively and safely. I recommend it for anyone. You do not need to be an artist, creativity is inbuilt in all of us and merely needs acknowledging. It can be as simple as colouring in. Give it a try, let me know what it was like.

[indigo22]

Hi Jody,

Welcome to the forums, glad to have you here.

It sounds like you have been through a lot like many of us here and it is good to hear you found a therapy that helped you.

I am not certain, but I think this particular thread is not indexed (on search engines) so I am going to check with the moderators for you as I think this post needs to be somewhere more visible to the community. This thread does not get a lot of traffic which is probably why you have not had a response until now. So if I am right, I will ask the moderators to find a better spot in the forums for you. They will contact you if they plan to move it, so there is nothing you need to do at your end.

I hope you will enjoy being part of the community here.

All the best to you,

indigo

[Lovedmum]

hi Jody I have had my depression friend for 30 years now and feel as thought I should be managing it better after reading your post. I am currently in a slump and not going very well, but your post has helped me think about other alternatives then what I’m doing atm. 

[Jody]

hi! Dont be hard on yourself, being self judgemental of should's, is something which is easy to do, but even though it seems harder, loving oneself by being accepting of yourself as is, being ok with that you are who you are at this point of your life, although is a hurdle, truly is the greater step forward. I dont know about other people, but i feel that the 'should's' keeps one stuck in the deeper low mindsets which enable self denial and a sense of helplessness thrive. When accepting that one is in whatever particular position they are in with their mental and emotional health, that is a form of unconditional self love expression to oneself and from it new potential for understanding the self also can take place. When you understand the self through self acceptance and self awareness of that self acceptance, a sense of self empowerment can emerge, and from this comes new opportunities to look at your needs on a more holistic level. Sometimes there is no magic cure for mental and emotional health because there are so many reasons or causes for it to emerge, but when one is able to be more aware of triggers and holistic therapies to assist in managing health and wellbeing, at least there is some sense of self security and thus stability, in being able to manage mood and emotions when needed in a healthy way. Art Therapy is a great process for nurturing this, and a safe platform for personal exploration or as a tool in therapy. 

May i suggest maybe small little steps such as no longer calling depression a friend (as you are reinstating to your sub and unconscious self that depression is a comfort instead of what it is, which is the body's alarm system telling you that something isnt quite right for you) and just taking that step to practice reaffirming that depression is a response, not a friend. When it comes to baby steps, and when you come to a point in your existence that you realise you want to no longer survive life but start living life, then like Paul Kelly sings in his song, "from little things big things grow", having those small affirmative shifts in mindset habits can potentially achieve so much during your life course.

Where Art Therapy ties in with this is that it is an option of helping those affirmative baby step mindset shifts happen in a gentle positive way.

There is hope always, if there is someone showing light upon the path forwards, i know.

[Jody]

thankyou indigo, and thank you for your welcome 🙂

[indigo22]

You are welcome Jody, and I wanted to say I agree with you about the way we word things.

These days I say I am dealing with depression as opposed to suffering with depression or I am depressed. It's a way of separating the illness from the person, the illness is not you, it is something you need to deal with just like any other illness you may encounter during your life.

Stay well,

indigo

[Jody]

yes ❤️