Stigma can be understood as a mark of disgrace that is associated with any particular person, circumstance or thing. In the field of mental health, stigma is about the way someone sees an individual with a mental health illness/concern. Stigma brings attached to it a lot of humiliation, embarrassment and hopelessness. But, is this what we are supposed to propagate in the field of mental health? Or should we should come together and dissolve it for once and all?
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There are various ways to fight, remove and dissolve stigma in the field of mental health like psycho-education programs, talk shows, publishing books on the same etc.
Ever thought there could be a creative yet effective way of doing the same? Art therapy could play a significant role in removing stigma in the area of mental health. “Art therapy is a mental health profession that uses the creative process of art making to improve and enhance the physical, mental and emotional well-being of individuals of all ages“. The American Art Therapy Association (AATA) bases its definition of Art Therapy on Ms Malchiodi’s definition.
Art and Mental Health
Deirdre Heenan in the year 2007 did research on how art therapy plays an effective role in enhancing positive mental health and found in his results that it created a safe space for reflecting on mental health issues. Doing art is the most non-intimidating process of expressing oneself and when it is brought into practice as a therapy involving a therapist to facilitate the process of art-making in relation to the mental health concern, it can provide insightful experiences to remember.
When there is an insight, there can be no room for STIGMA, Art therapy holds the potential to create awareness by encouraging us to create or recreate ourselves and thereby through stimulated imagination experience the world within and around in different new ways. Such a platform which makes people open to learning and experiencing new things in new ways can be brought into use for campaigning against stigma in mental health. Art therapeutic activities would not only make the process of removal of stigma revolving around mental health in our society be creatively and colourfully addressed but also would not make it intimidating in any way.
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Sensitizing people over mental health issues through Art therapy could be one of the most innovative, creative as well as effective ways. There are various benefits of Art therapy to name them from a broader perspective would include: enhancing cognitive skills and resolving cognitive issues, enhancing emotional skills and resolving emotional concerns, and enhancing behavioural and social skills while resolving behavioural concerns. Where it taps into the potential of enhancing social skills and abilities of an individual is where it can be brought into application for working around dissolving stigma!
Participating in the process of Art therapy makes an individual all the more observant, improves thinking abilities, creates insight as well and instils a sense of accomplishment among the individuals, and these are all factors that contribute highly to removing stigma. People can have a deeper understanding of it by the following examples:
- Being observant would mean being attentive to every minute of detail which can further lead to a better understanding of the situation.
- Improved thinking abilities would lead to a better level of exploration of experiences.
- The creation of an insight would dissolve all barriers to communication, and openness to new ideas and approaches as well as act as an effective contributing factor in the process of psycho-education.
An insight is created during an art therapy session through the artwork and its related expression. There is a visual clarity that gets created and hence reflecting the message that the artwork contains becomes all the more accessible to the participating individual. We must have been able to observe that in the field of advertising, it’s the creative visualization of the content that impacts our minds.
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Art therapy stimulates the process of reflection over information for perception by creating a visual impact on the mind. This ensures that the information shared, reflected upon, processed and imbibed is likely to approach as well as act as an effective contributing factor in the process of psycho-education.
We must have been able to observe that in the field of advertising, it’s the creative visualization of the content that impacts our minds. Art therapy stimulates the process of reflection on information for perception by creating a visual impact on the mind. This ensures that the information shared, reflected upon, processed and imbibed is likely to stay for reference for a longer duration. This property makes art therapy an apt tool for destigmatizing mental health concerns in our nation of repute.
Empowering Individuals Through Art Therapy
A series of accomplishments that is followed by the attainment of knowledge on any given significant subject acts as one of the assets that an individual can earn in one’s life. When the knowledge would be about destigmatizing anything related to any mental health concern, it would instil a sense of emotional and mental security which could be understood as an integral part of the sense of accomplishment.
Valerie Appleton in the year 2011 did research on how art therapy can be used for resolving trauma issues among adolescents. The model of trauma resolution comprised of different stages being addressed therapeutically through art therapy. Among those stages, the third one was that of overcoming social stigma and isolation through mastery. This initiative by Valerie not only resulted in understanding the effectiveness of art therapy in reducing trauma but also was able to throw light on how it effectively facilitates the process of overcoming social stigma and isolation.
There are various ways in which Art Therapy can be used as an effective tool to dissolve stigma around the mental health field. Let’s try and understand the process by the given example:
Using Narrative art therapy techniques, we can work towards removing stigma among people about mental health. The steps and stages could be based on the following goals-
- To encourage people to talk about mental health concerns openly
- To psycho-educate through the creative symbolization of the concerns
- To encourage people to use a creative language like art which shall be least intimidating to use
- Elimination of self-stigmatization through strengthening the self-concept of each individual living with any mental health concern in a creative way.
Narrative Art Therapy
The Narrative art therapy technique would be an apt technique to bring into implementation as it would involve extensive communication supported by artworks over the chosen mental health concern which shall be directed as per the goals decided with regard to the process of destigmatization.
Art therapy is an effective tool of expression as it leads to systematic externalisation of internal thoughts and emotions which otherwise might not be possible in words. Bringing art therapy into use to make people care, understand and perceive things about mental health would always be a promising choice.
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Any storybook that has images for reference in it tends to hold more potential in terms of helping the reader to connect with the content and remember it for a long period. Images play an important role in terms of supporting the act of sharing information as it leads to deeper and better remembering of the same. One can ask participants to draw and express what they wish to share about mental health or the mental health experts could be encouraged to psycho-educate about mental health and its significance through art and craft work but only when it would involve the angle of therapy in it would it be able to serve its purpose all the more effectively.
Sharing such information through art therapy would have the following benefits:
- Would be a friendly language to communicate with
- Would make content visually clear to understand
- Enable individuals to express themselves freely
- Any stirring of emotions, or moments of getting reexposed to any unwanted thought, could be therapeutically managed and provided a needful closure
- Would be creatively different from the usually used mode of communication keeping the interaction platform interesting and intriguing
- The content shared would not be threatening to look at or shared further etc. press themselves freely
- Any stirring of emotions, or moments of getting re-exposed to any unwanted thought, could be therapeutically managed and provided a needful closure Would be creatively different from the usually used mode of communication keeping the interaction platform interesting and intriguing
- The content shared would not be threatening to be looked at or shared further etc.
Stigma is not something to be lived within our society but rather has to be brought down in its level of existence. As individuals living in a society where stigma could be attached to various things, we do make an effort to fight and live against it. And the same effort is expected from us in relation to anything that has got to do with mental health. It’s high time people should get going with their initiatives to help people overcome their respective level of ignorance that exists about various mental health illnesses and related concerns, It’s no more the responsibility of just the mental health professionals and experts but rather every educated individual to work towards destigmatization.
What we shall see today as a piece of information will grow into the knowledge of trees in some time. And that would always be the best way of fighting against stigma and the consequences it brings along. Smart ways to re-create knowledge around mental health could be a thoughtful task and that’s where Art Therapy as an effective technique could be brought into use to accomplish the goal of removing stigma about anything and everything related to mental health.
