Day 1
We took the class given by Mr. Wang from eight to eleven in the morning. The content included a summary of the history of art therapy, specific therapies for different mental illnesses, why ART can be so effective for curing mental diseases, and so on. My greatest gain in this class was that I deeply understood the function of art therapy from a biological angle, and learned the specific categories under art therapy.
I took a lot of notes in the class, and the most impressive points in the class were: 1) The relation between art therapy and unconsciousness 2) The fundamental cause of dementia was not found yet, leading to auxiliary healing such as art therapy playing a big role in helping patients with dementia 3) Participants of art therapy will release dopamine, serotonin, endorphins and other neurotransmitters 4) The dysplasia of the sympathetic nervous system is one of the main reasons for Autism and ADHD (it actually provided me with a new perspective when researching on Autism) 5) Traditional psychological counseling is not suitable for everyone, since some patients might bewilder the consultant by giving unreal information to “protect themselves”. Nevertheless, other expressions such as art can help them break through their psychological defenses and reflect their true conditions.
In the afternoon, we experienced a three-hour workshop. It was divided into two parts: Dance therapy and fine arts therapy. Dance therapy was quite astonishing for me. Before the workshop, I thought that dance therapy was merely about encouraging participants to dance together. In fact, the “dance therapy” we joined seems to be unrelated to the traditional meaning of “dance” ——there are only really simple actions like walking, sitting down, standing up, and stretching arms and legs, which is considerate since real “dances” can be difficult or even risky for a lot of people, especially the elders. At first, I felt strange and failed to get the meaning of all these strange moves. However, I finally understand that this is an activity not only for activating our bodies, but also for exciting our brains and establishing belief.
The game in the “dance therapy” that impressed me the most was “gravity”. It was about calming down and focusing on the “heaviest” part of our bodies (for me, it was my head), and imagining this body part being attracted by gravity, and leading the whole body to the floor. The process was similar to meditation, which is also about following instructions and paying attention to a single body part. After totally sitting on the ground, I was told to “feel the body part that is first aroused” (which is my eyes) and let it lead the whole body up. I really loved this process because it made me feel brightened and brought me a sudden sense of achievement and excitement.
And the following fine art therapy was definitely my favorite. The activity was called “the map of feeling”, and we were told to color the human figure on white paper, different colors representing different feelings like happiness, sorrow, anger, anxiety, shame, and so on. After that, we started our collective artwork, which was quite magnificent: twenty people were lying on a piece of paper huge enough to fill the whole room, half of them striking different postures and the other half helping them depict their contour. Then, we were asked to choose one color as the base of the painting (I used blue, of course, my favorite color) and use oil pastels to draw more specific patterns on it. We were allowed to express our feelings freely on the paper with the flow of the music. I could feel some of the neurotransmitters being triggered when my work was increasingly close to completion. After finishing the work, we shared our own paintings together, and the workshop finally came to an end.
After dinner, we watched a classical movie about Alzheimer’s disease together, which is called Father. It was really symbolic and impressive. Telling the story from the first-person perspective, the movie allows the audience to feel the confusion, fear and helplessness of the people with Alzheimer’s. I think it really helps people to understand this group of people, and I believe that UNDERSTANDING is one of the most essential qualities for people taking care of them, whether their children or their doctors. I will definitely recommend it to my family members and friends.