Using art therapy can reduce stress, say experts in Pune
Art therapies including dance, painting and any thing creative helps adding a sense of calm and positivity both for the patients and the extended family who maybe under stress. HT speaks to artists, professionals and counsellors on the same.
How often have you walked the corridors of a hospital and wondered why paintings are placed on the walls? Or why is there such finer detailing put in for the colour and objects placed in a therapy room? Well, experts suggest that art in any creative form helps in reducing stress, induces a happy ambience and makes one feel at ease--both for the patients and the extended family who maybe under stress.
Dr Khushboo Shah, founder of Earthlings, said that art therapy technically also known as expressive art therapy includes visual mediums, so basically painting, colouring, crafts, playing with materials or even dance movements.
“It could be anything which includes riddles and drum circles too. Any form of art which helps in expressions. However, it has to be facilitated by a facilitator, who can take you to a place beyond expression and actually make a change,” said Shah.
Creating a space
One-on-one sessions of therapy tend to get scary or scaring for certain individuals. In such times, expressive art therapies help patients open up and vent through a medium. “It becomes easier for them to say what they want, maybe through a sketch or a dance move or a caricature. For example, I apply Access Consciousness, which offers self empowering and pragmatic tools to change things in your life that you haven’t been able to change until now. Access Consciousness provides you with ways to become totally aware and to begin to function as the conscious being who you truly are,” adds Khushboo.
Experts should definitely recommend it. City-based colour therapist Namrata Sharma believes colours bring out certain chemicals in the brain which help people express and this further facilitates healing.
Art in hospitals
Take for example, In Jehangir Hospital, art is everywhere -- be it the old world tiles, the stained glass windows, the glass mosaic or even the photographs by the chairman Jehangir H C Jehangir. Dr Sanjay Phadke, Senior Consultant, Neuropsychiatry at Jehangir Hospital says, "It's a scientifically proven fact that human beings are the only ones that have an ability to appreciate in our species. Emotions and appreciation for beauty is our key strength. Hence art plays a huge role in making our patients feel good adding happy colour and a positive texture to an experience they may not be looking forward to and they can bounce back instantly. Forget patients, we have seen a difference in just us as consultants, support staff and the team who enjoy coming to work everyday.”
Dr Phadke adds, “One can absorb art in a passive or in an engaged manner. Art therapy is a common stress buster and also helps patients across age groups deal with any format of depression or even shift focus away from the pain. A beautiful piece of art has that format of impact as its aesthetics please the senses and also provoke you to think about it consciously or subliminally!”
Places that conduct art therapy sessions in Pune
1. Bapu Trust: B1, Kaul Building, 8 Guru Nanaknagar, Off Shankar Seth road
2. Artsphere: 402, Fourth Floor, North Court Building, North Avenue road number 12, near Jogger's Park, above Cafe Colombia, Kalyaninagar,
3. Soul Canvas: Mundhwa
4. WCCL Foundation” C/O Sanjay Knit Pvt. Ltd. F-1001, ʻFelicitaʼ, Baner-Pashan Link road, behind ʻSymantec Buildingʼ