Karina had a stroke 13 years ago when she was just 34. She had been a linguist before this happened, active in her career, mother of two, enjoying a full life. Rebecca met Karina earlier this month at an old folks’ home in Chile while Rebecca and her little sister Julia were visiting Ceci, the 101-year-old Chilean nanny who raised …
How Karina Brought Her Brother To Tears: The Gift of Art Click to Read Post »
It’s difficult to call for “Gratitude” practices when we have such critical things happening in the world right now. But it is also important that we not give in to hopelessness and overwhelm when things are so bad. The negativity bias, our unconscious tendency to notice negative things over positive ones, will make it seem like there is nothing but …
Attending to the Good to Overcome Hopelessness/Why Gratitude Matters Click to Read Post »
Like many of you, we have lots of opinions on the escalating violence, war, and the state of world, but, at the risk of being glib, we’re just going to whittle it down to one simple thought: “The more different we believe we are from others, the more alike we turn out to be and the more alike we think …
The More Different We Are The MoreAlike/The More Alike The More Different Click to Read Post »
Rebecca—who is back East because of a complicated dental implant that isn’t healing well—was bemoaning to her husband KC that she felt overwhelmed and couldn’t think straight. She’s been surfing between her mother and her sister’s couches and torn between wanting to spend time with them and wanting to be home with KC and the cats. Stressed OutWhat’s distressed her …
We just taught a class on “Art Therapy and Positive Psychology” with graduate art therapy students so we are warmed up to the topic. One of the assignments we give the students is to notice their strengths in action for a week. Values In Action Survey To start, we have them take the Values In Action survey, aa assessment which …
In the “Art for Self Discovery” workshops we’ve been running recently, we’ve seem people come for many different reasons. Most are just “regular” folks who are curious about what their art is saying. Some have heard about art therapy and want to learn more about it. Some are artists who are stuck and want to jump start their creativity. Others …
Art Trauma–Why You Need to Get Over It and How to Do That Click to Read Post »
Family Dynamics TriggeredWhile Rebecca was back East last month, she went to visit her friend Annu, an artist whose work we’ve featured in our newsletters before. Annu was also back East, having come from Montana to stay with her mother and sister for several weeks and, much as she loves the two, Annu was feeling triggered by old family dynamics. …
Last month we paid tribute to Irvo Otieno, Joshua McLemore, and Jordan Neely who died essentially because their mental illness was not understood by others. What Does It Meant To Be Mentally Well/Mentally WellPerhaps because of those distressing cases, or maybe because it’s mental health awareness month, we’ve seen a lot of attention being devoted to addressing mental illness. But …
Tribute to People Who Have Died Because of Ignorance about Mental IllnessWe pay tribute this month to two young men that sadly died as a result of their mental illness being grossly misunderstood and mistreated. Although we usually try to focus on uplifting messages in our newsletters, the cases of Irvo Otieno and Joshua McLemore, which have been in the …
What Art Communicates We have recently been running a workshops series on what our art communicates. People Are Sheepish About Showing Their ArtworkInvariably, when people are invited to share what the art they made, almost everyone hesitates. They worry that their artwork is either too childish, too primitive, not good enough, different from what everyone else made, or just plain …
Think You’re a Bad Artist, You May Be Right But That’s Not the Point Click to Read Post »
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