Art Matters

“Arts to the rescue“

Some of you are probably wondering why Psychology Today would have a blog called “The Healing Arts.” My worldview of health and healing grew from more than two decades of working as an art therapist and an expressive arts therapist, a practitioner who uses all the arts [visual, music, dance and movement, drama, creative writing, and play] as modalities to help people recover, restore, and revitalize. Working with individuals of all ages through the arts and making art an almost daily practice in my own life, I have come to believe that art and imagination are equally as important to health and well-being as balanced nutrition, regular exercise, and meditation.

I believe all the arts– by experiencing them and engaging in them– can return you to what it means to be truly human. The arts integrate what is most opposite in life: joy and grief, clarity and bewilderment, humor and absurdity, hope and despair. They are present in our lives to cultivate intuition, inspiration, and spontaneity. In the increasingly technological trance we encounter each and every day, art and imagination are there to awaken us to consciousness and to naturally repair ourselves, maintain our balance, and recover what it is to truly feel. We cannot argue with thousands of years of humans engaging in art making activities that often have no monetary or similar payoff. We humans engage in creative expression for reasons that extend far beyond the art gallery, theater, or concert hall. When we suffer the inevitable wounds to heart and soul, arts are available to come to our rescue, having always served as a healer during times of trouble.

So I hope this blog provides something that completely shifts your impressions about the psychology behind the arts, creativity, and imagination and makes you think about how these forces awaken our inner world of feeling and personal authenticity. My intent is to try to articulate my impassioned [and on some days, creatively chaotic] vision for how the arts and imagination restore emotional health. This vision will be conveyed through actual real life stories and, on other days, you’ll read about some of the emerging research that supports those anecdotal, first-person stories of recovery though the healing arts. Because I try to practice my mission by engaging in the process first-hand, occasionally I’ll share some of the entries that emerge in my visual journal that you see on this page. To me, art does matter.

Originally posted on March 20, 2008

© 2008 Cathy Malchiodi

http://www.cathymalchiodi.com