Many of us spend our lives in our proverbial bubbles, maybe even reading about how art therapy can help veterans with PTSD every now and then. However, we rarely take the time to remember those who have fallen and consider the many sacrifices all the men, women and their families have made – and continue to make – that help provide many of the freedoms Americans enjoy and often take for granted.
That said, we want to say thank you to all the men and women who have valiantly served the United States and who are currently serving in the Armed Forces. Regardless of what you think about government or politics, it’s important to appreciate what these people have sacrificed to serve and fight for what they believe.
Please take some time to reflect about these wonderful people and their families. If you like, feel free to leave a comment and tell others about people who deserve to be acknowledged. Others need to hear these stories!
This time of year is also a good time to find a creative outlet or artistic form of expression through various art therapy activities and ideas.
i did art therapy for myself and sure enough it helped me thru many crises. i know it worked for me. i am interested in people who have emotional problems or are mentally ill. sherrie
I recently saw a documentary feature called My Name is Alan and I Paint Pictures about a schizophrenic man named Alan who has been spending his life trying to understand and use the things he sees in hears from schizophernia in the for of street Art. The film, which is really wonderful, tells us about his upbrining in England and how schizophrenia shaped who he is and how his art, mostly done on the streets of New York City, has become his life work. It is a very well done and engaging film that I think anyone should check out. I think it could be somewhat inspiring to people with schizophrenia or families that struggle with it. Definitely should check it out! I just checked and the website is called mynameisalan.com
I really think people should check this out!
Spencer
I do know that painting in Abstract can alleviate one from fatigue or feelings of sadness.
We lost a loved-one suddenly last year and grieving can take some time to work through, even when one doesn’t feel inspiration, it is well worth just choosing a selection of colours and allowing the brush to dip and daube whatever is being felt in mind.
Painting from the ‘dark-side’ sometimes can be liberating and unleash dormant feelings that one would have never known existed, as the colours do portray emotion maybe been surpressed?
Yes, painting really does take the attention out of inner sadness and displays something new on the canvas, that can take any form or shape. I paint seascapes and sailing ships when I feel sad, and it seems to drift away the blues!
From one simple Abstract expression, it can take one into an entirely new dimension, and hopefully erase doubt and emptiness after loss.
Painting in Abstract seems to help me understand what feelings are trying to express, not just loss but happiness too! There is a World of a World within Emptiness, after losing someone dear, and its a matter of experimenting with colours and sculpting out what really needs to be expressed, no matter how it turns out!
If it were not for art therapy, I may not have been able to fully express the deep intense feelings inside that I held on to for many years concerning my abuse issues and my PTSD. The above article talks about soldiers fighting and dying for what they believed in. In my struggle with PTSD I suffered for things I didn’t believe in. However, art has carried me through times I thought I couldn’t stand. Today I showed some of my mandalas with a close friend -she was amazed at the beauty and individual expression that mandalas contain and the great healing that comes along with making and coloring mandalas…there are so many other vehicles within art to draw out the pain and bring out joy within each of even the most traumatized among us…thanks for this newsletter, I enjoy it so much.
Art therapy has given me an outlet to release the sadness, anger and loneliness felt in my childhood growing up in a crazy alcoholic home and the PTSD I now struggle with. Titles for paintings come to me randomly; acting on them thru abstract art has helped me get in touch with the feelings I’ve been pushing down for years and provides a way to see and feel what’s stuck inside of me.
I plan on creating a website to share my art therapy with those who can identify with similar feelings.
Thank you to others that have posted a comment, you encouraged me to do same…
Thank you for the article! My husband, a retired combat vet, can’t be convinced to try art as a way of dealing with his PTSD, but I started painting when he went to Iraq the first time and it helped me coping with the stress. I now use it for my patients as well.