Creative Healing

Art is a way of life for Elva Palo (BVA ’92). While growing up, creativity was all around her – her father and maternal grandfather were both artists whose work she admired.

“It’s always been in my family,” says the art therapist with more than two decades of experience in the field.

The intuitive capacity for art-making is natural for children, and is often lost as we become adults

Through it all, she’s seen it transform people’s lives.

“The intuitive capacity for art-making is natural for children, and is often lost as we become adults. But art can ‘speak’ expressively through colour and form.”

Erin Kuri (BFA ’03) recalls a similar realization. The art therapist works in community settings and in private practice at Feather and Twig Counselling and Psychotherapy.

But before she learned how to support others, she discovered how art could help her.

“When I was in high school, I was going through some challenging times.”

That’s when her high school art teacher told her about art therapy as a profession.

It made perfect sense to Kuri. “I noticed that when I was making art, I felt calm. It was a place to externalize my emotions.”

It’s a growing awareness that’s ushered in countless art therapy programs, such as those offered at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, Sunnybrook Hospital and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. This is a response to extensive evidence showing the therapeutic benefits of art on physical and mental well-being.

A 2019 report by the World Health Organization concluded, “Art can help us to emotionally navigate the journey of battling an illness or injury, process difficult emotions in times of emergency and challenging events … Benefits are seen across several markers, including health promotion, the management of health conditions and illness, and disease prevention.”

When she was 19, Palo worked as a nurse at a summer camp, where beyond tending cuts and bruises, she also helped kids going through tough times.

“Some of them missed their families or had issues at home,” Palo says. “I had a sketchbook with me, and they would doodle in it. It was an interesting way for them to release their concerns and emotions.”

It made an impression.

 

Years later, when she was married and had children, she attended a seminar by an art therapist. It convinced her to explore art therapy as a career.

That’s exactly what she did, beginning with a practicum at a long-term care facility working with older adults who had cognitive decline.

“Photographs or printed images were a good way to stimulate memory, open conversation and to engage with others. Often, painting was a good way to provide some relaxation and to lift mood.”

There can also be breakthroughs, such as when Palo worked with a woman who had Parkinson’s disease.

During the session, the woman made a watercolour painting of a tree, which made her recall a long-repressed childhood memory.

“Deep feelings stay with us and the memory associated with the deep feeling can surface again when triggered by something similar in the present,” Palo explains. “The art image becomes a powerful symbol of an associated emotion. It can help a person to talk about unresolved issues from the past.”

Today, Palo works throughout Ontario with clients of all age groups.

In all cases, Palo says, “art becomes a portal for discussion.” She runs two registered art therapy groups for members of Wellspring Birmingham Gilgan House Cancer Support Centre in Oakville.

“They share what they notice about their own art and each other’s art. Group members often see something about themselves in the art images that they had not recognized before.”

These discoveries occur because art therapy uniquely combines psychotherapy with self-expression and creativity.

“It taps into another side of the brain that is less about intellectual control,” Palo says.

Engaging with the materials can be emotionally regulating and can support integration of complex experiences

But sometimes clients are hesitant because they don’t view themselves as artistic or creative.

“No experience is necessary,” Kuri points out. “It’s so much more about engaging in the creative process and seeing what will emerge within the context of a trusting therapeutic relationship with a trained art therapist.”

Kuri says simple actions like sweeping a brush across the canvas or layering colours are significant. Since it’s a tactile therapy, using different materials such as felt, clay or markers can have an impact.

“Engaging with the materials can be emotionally regulating and can support integration of complex experiences.”

Art therapy is also particularly helpful for reaching people who are unable to articulate their feelings, Palo adds.

“It’s an alternative for people with compromised language skills. Those with chronic illnesses who have some memory loss or neurocognitive decline, or who are going through cancer treatment and are experiencing a brain fog.”

Kuri knows the challenges of supporting clients when words are at a loss or won’t suffice.

Her areas of specialization include trauma and loss, and gender-based sexual violence. Some of her clients are survivors of childhood sexual abuse whose experiences are often tied to isolation and silence.

“It’s the creation and sharing of the images that’s very powerful. Sharing and showing embodied experiences that we often struggle to translate into verbal linear language.”

And whatever situations clients are facing, art and creativity can have a healing effect.

“I’m excited and honoured to see what people will create – how they will transform difficult experiences and grow into new ways of understanding their identities and social contexts. The possibilities are as infinite as the imagination.”  ■