What is Art Therapy:
Using artistic methods to treat psychological disorders and enhance mental health is termed as Art Therapy. It is a technique rooted in the idea that creative expression can foster healing and mental well-being. “It’s a psychotherapy where we use art as an instrument to heal a person from within.” says Miss Malena Hughet, who has been working as an art therapist for years. While talking about art as a therapeutic tool, the focus is not on its artistic form or the skills of people. The primary basis of the therapy is the creative process: the kind of feelings and thought that arise in a person’s conscience while they are performing that art; the memories they encounter while working on it.
“It is the most beautiful part as you don’t need to be an artist, have previous experience or know any specific technique to do art. It’s just to be aware of one’s upwelling emotions and to go with the flow.”
Art therapy integrates psychotherapeutic techniques with the creative process to improve mental health and well-being.
Mandala Art and Psychotherapy:
Mandala Art is an important aspect of psychotherapy to find or restore a sense of healthy mental balance. Just a simple act to create a mandala can be very helpful: it helps people to relax and focus on the current moment. It helps them to be absorbed in the process where they tend to forget all the past memories and experiences. This gradually clarifies a person’s mind. For some, the practice is very self-soothing and centering. Others find mandala techniques to be powerful tools for dealing with negative emotions, such as fear, anxiety or anger.
The intricate connection between Mandala and Psychotherapy:
Talking about the connection between art and therapy, the terapeuta says,“Part of my background is analytic psychotherapy. Mandala art proves to be a useful method for it.” As a symbol, mandalas usually come alive in the conscience when a person is unable to establish a good communication. They appear to build a bridge for communication when someone is experiencing a trauma or an emotional breakdown. “Our conscience constantly reminds us that we need to speak up and let our feelings out. This is where the symbol of mandala helps a person to communicate.”
As an expressive medium, art can be used to help clients communicate, overcome stress and to go through the process of the therapy. “Going through therapy can be difficult sometimes as it requires one to face all their problems and sorrows which they have been running away from. Facing the problem can be a painful experience. But when you use these kinds of symbols and tools, it acts as a bride and prepares your body for the therapy.” The aim of the process is not to make someone forget past horrific memories, but to accept it, heal and move forward in life.
Mission Hariharananda in India:
The mission is aimed at assisting widows and homeless children in India.
On reaching India, Miss Hughet had many questions in her mind. Travelling to an entirely different country made her question her perception of balance in life. It was the 3 months experience in India which taught Miss Hughet to deal with tough situations in life. Meeting the group of widows, especially the minors, living with them, doing daily chores and listening to their stories, made her realize the harsh truths of life.
“My experience in India was indeed a great learning process which changed my perception of life and made me ready to adjust in different environments. Earlier I was too unbending, not so liberal with my ideas, but after coming back from India, I realized that everybody grows at a different pace.”
Project “Acompanarte”: My first Words
In Spanish, the word “acompanarte” means “a game of words”. Its English translation can be derived as: “accompany through art”.
It is a company dedicated to help adults and children find their inner peace, strengthen their emotional, mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing through art and yoga. Miss Hughet decided to start this project to help people by providing them art therapy, especially for the populations who are in risk and don’t have access to these kinds of therapies and health sessions. This project gave her an opportunity to be in Brazil and work for generating effective teaching models in schools. She also worked in the Pedagogical project for life in the orphanage “Donna Vera Lar.” This gave her a first hand experience of working with children, using art as a pedagogical tool.
“This project allowed me to travel inside my country, in different cities, and extend help to the needy ones.”
Work with refugees in Bosnia:
Miss Hughet is working for an international organization: Médecins du Monde. Also known as the Doctors of the World, it provides emergency and long-term medical care to the world’s most vulnerable people. She is operating in Bosnia where they provide mental health support. In Bosnia, there are 4 refugee camps, with approximately 65,000 refugees, migrants and asylum seekers being recorded in the country. These refugees go through a lot of hardships in life and there is a need to treat them with more care and patience. A therapist needs to learn effective techniques of working with them in order to absorb the trauma from their lives. This can be exhausting and might lead to burnout situations.
“You go and deal with the hard life situations of the refugees and then come back to your own home where normal life prevails. The work makes you reflect upon your own life, your opportunities, your privilege.”
Miss Hughet believes that her philosophy of life has helped her a lot in dealing with these situations.
“Sometimes life is not as we want it to be. But, everything is a part of life. We are unable to understand the reason behind some experiences initially, but at every moment, we are learning something new.”
Future Aspirations:
Miss Hughet wants to work in the direction of making people more compassionate and tolerant. “Something that I really want to work towards is to mediate a space for interacting with people not going through traumatic experiences, in order to raise awareness and promote peace in the world.” She truly believes that peace is not concrete but it is something that starts in our hearts.
“We need to promote tolerance in the world, but first of all, in our own hearts.”
Her ultimate aim is to offer these kinds of therapies to a wider range of people in order to help them to grow.
