Search Weight Loss Topics:




Jun 14

Villagers find relief in artistic therapies – The Villages Daily Sun

Exercise Programs Comments Off on Villagers find relief in artistic therapies – The Villages Daily Sun

Pattis post-traumatic stress disorder kept a heavy pain on her heart, until one day the burden was lifted off her chest as she stood in a room at The Villages Health Colony Care Center during the Mind in Motion dance-movement therapy class.

Movement and behavioral therapist Catherine Salmons had class participants picture themselves walking through a stream with logs in it.

Pick up a log and hold it, Salmons told the group. And whatever is inside you that you want to get rid of, just take it and throw it.

Patti, a Villages resident whose last name has been omitted for privacy reasons, said her PTSD was always inside of her, causing underlying hurt and sadness.

When (Salmons) told me to throw it, I threw it, and all of a sudden it was outside of my body I dont have that pain anymore. I have the memory of it, but I dont have the pain anymore, she said.

This moment of relief happened during Pattis second session at Mind in Motion, and shes kept at it ever since.

I just feel better about myself, Patti said. I have higher self-esteem and I feel better physically. I feel more positive and more confident in my future.

Expressive arts therapy such as dance-movement therapy, art therapy and music therapy can be traced back to the 40s when it was used to treat shell-shocked World War II veterans in hospitals, according to Vivien Marcow Speiser, an expressive therapist and a professor of expressive therapies at Lesley University.

This type of therapy is still commonly used by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, and due to a growing body of qualitative and quantitative research, it is being implemented to reach a wider variety of people in medical and social settings.

A clinical trials database through the National Library of Medicine brings up studies on expressive therapies helping manage symptoms associated with breast cancer, dementia, multiple sclerosis, autism, eating disorders, migraines, chronic tinnitus and more.

Advances in expressive therapy are causing it to grow in two ways, said Marion County-based art therapist Casey Barlow.

I would say that theres a unique process of art therapy moving both away and back into the medical model, she said.

Moving away from the medical model put the focus on making these therapies more accessible to various groups of people. At the same time, the expressive therapy world is moving back into quantitative data to show who, and what, it can help heal.

Expressive Therapy in the Medical World

Engaging with a creative process, such as with art therapy, is a way to regulate physiological function, according to Marcow Speiser.

When youre in an expressive state, your blood pressure normalizes, your heart rate normalizes, Marcow Speiser said. There are all sorts of physiological benefits of engaging with the arts.

Juliet King, associate professor of art therapy at The George Washington University and adjunct associate professor of neurology at the Indiana University School of Medicine has a research focus of integrating neuroscience with art therapy to show how interacting with the arts can benefit brain function.

When making art, the limbic system, which deals with emotion and memory, connects to the conscious part of the brain, King said.

So networks occur that allow different functions of the brain to work together, King said.

She said making art allows you to tap into the unconscious and emotional parts of your brain that the cognitive, thinking parts of your brain usually blocks.

So when somebody creates art, their brain attends to what theyre doing, but also lets go, allowing for a more relaxed conscious state.

Every time we experience emotions, that changes our heart rate and our skin temperature, King said. We found that art making in a therapeutic space has the ability to decrease a stress response. (You can) decrease cortisol and stress by engaging in an artistic process and having that process witnessed and reflected by a therapist.

King said engaging in arts activity also increases neuroplasticity, which is what allows the brain to change and adapt.

We have the capacity for this during our entire lifespan, she said. We have the capacity to create new neurons. Granted, a baby is going to have more of a plasticity to their brain than a person whos 90, but theres still the capacity. So you can imagine the value and importance that art therapy has with the aging population.

In natural aging, our bodies become more stiff, and the same can be said for the brain.

The more active our minds are, the more holistic and healthy we are, King said.

Like art, music also stimulates many areas of the brain, which promotes neuroplasticity, according to Tiffany Sparrow, a music therapist in Edmonton, Alberta.

It can also promote neural pathway generation, learning, healing, and language rehabilitation or development, Sparrow said.

For those with Alzheimers or dementia, this means that music can coax out parts of a persons personality from before the disease.

In essence, it can help peel back the layers of confusion and can sometimes help tap into pieces of a persons personality that may have been covered up, Sparrow said. Through that, there can be a sense of reconnecting, especially for family members.

AdventHealth has implemented a creative arts program within various Central Florida hospitals, working with cardiovascular, cancer, stroke, Parkinsons, hospice, ICU, NICU patients and more.

As research comes out more and more, music therapy is becoming more valid and more appreciated as an important component in medical and neuro-rehabilitative settings, said Rich Moats, program manager for the music therapy and integrative and creative arts therapy programs at AdventHealth.

The group uses music to help stroke patients regain abilities they lost from their stroke.

For example, they may place a drum in front of a patient and have them push themselves to raise their arms upwards to play.

When they hit the drum, that auditory feedback gives them the boost of I did it, Moats said.

AdventHealth also helps patients manage pain in the music therapy program.

Music can be something else to focus on as a distractor or it can decrease pain perception to help them cope with it, Moats said. We are engaging them in playing music through their pain.

The therapists might ask the patient to play what their pain would sound like. At the same time, the music floods the brain with a pleasurable stimulus.

In The Villages, people with COPD are playing the harmonica to promote healthy breathing, socialize and learn music.

Harmonicas for Health is a resident lifestyle group as well as a nationwide initiative supported by the COPD Foundation.

The COPD Foundation recommends the program for individuals with COPD or other chronic lung diseases to learn better breathing control, exercise breathing muscles, relieve stress and socialize with others. The COPD Foundations website reports that playing the harmonica can decrease shortness of breath, increase sputum mobilization and increase quality of life.

Harmonicas for Health in The Villages was started by John Mooney, of the Village of Belle Aire.

Though he is not a music therapist, he has played and taught the harmonica for decades. He also had worked with the local COPD support group the Airheads, which is what prompted him to officially start Harmonicas for Health in November 2019.

Mooney gives out harmonica kits to the participants and uses video software with backing tracks and notes that light up so participants can follow along. He also emails the group the materials so that they can do the exercises at home.

Theyre exercising, learning how to play the harmonica and learning how to read sheet music, Mooney said.

Mooney has built up a library of popular music like Where Have All the Flowers Gone, making sure to choose songs that prompt the players to inhale and exhale frequently.

(The harmonica) is the only wind instrument thats played by breathing out and breathing in, Mooney said. The in and out breathing pattern causes the breathing apparatus, the diaphragm and the chest muscles, to work so that the lungs provide the air flow.

The group hopes to resume meeting at noon Fridays at El Santiago Recreation Center and at 11:30 a.m. on Mondays at Odell Recreation Center, but will likely wait a few months to resume, according to Mooney. In the meantime, Mooney will continue to send the group materials via email.

I have COPD, and this is a big help, said Bob Springsteen, of the Village of Polo Ridge. This is a friendly group. Theres no pressure. You can go at your own pace.

Springsteen said that after just three weeks of Harmonicas for Health, he noticed a slight difference in his breathing while walking.

On the treadmill, Ive just been able to do better, he said.

Connecting the Physical and the Mental

In addition to regulating physiological function, expressive therapy can also strengthen the relationship between the body and mind.

In Salmonss Mind in Motion class, a weekly movement therapy session at Colony Care Center helps clients with depression, anxiety, trauma, dementia and other mental-health concerns work through emotions with movement.

We know that stress and trauma act on the brain, but theres a mind-body connection, Salmons said. The brain also controls and regulates body function, and it can be dysregulated by anxiety, depression, stress and trauma things that upset the system.

Dance-movement therapy uses verbal imagery to help patients find, and connect with, their emotions.

Salmons gives each session a focus, like finding the center in your body or going with the flow. She guides clients through movements set to carefully curated playlists and visual metaphors, like throw the log off your chest and pull the cord thats tightly wrapped around your spine.

This mind-body feedback loop generates a powerful, physical release of emotion, Salmons said.

We spend the whole warm-up time loosening the body, developing flow, connecting movement to feeling, building power, moving faster, Salmons said. ... This taps into flow psychology, the idea that getting into a flow state requires the presence of some challenge both physical and conceptual.

In one class, participants waved around scarves to visualize movement, flow and transition.

Salmons told the class to think of something that was currently transitioning out of their lives and to help it along. At the end of the class, they lifted up their scarves and then dropped them in unison.

Let it go, Salmons said. Do you feel the lightness?

When she first started Mind in Motion at Colony Care Center, she researched the effectiveness by setting up groups in four-week sessions and having participants take a series of surveys on mental health, sleep, self-esteem and quality of life as they completed each class.

Salmons and Carla VandeWeerd, director of research with The Villages Health and associate professor at the University of South Florida, measured these attributes prior to starting the program and after completing it.

We consistently saw month-to-month that there were statistically significant improvements, specifically in depression and self-esteem, Salmons said.

Since then, the program has expanded the number of groups its offered to and has been tailored to sub-groups of older adults with dementia who may need a different way of communication.

Mind in Motion helps participants develop movement as a language to help them embody ideas and feelings that they cannot put into words, VandeWeerd said.

This kind of body-focused strategy provides a unique approach to psycho-social support and offers an outlet to communicate feelings non-verbally, said VandeWeerd.

In turn, participants experience relief through physical expression, VandeWeerd added.

To register for Mind in Motion, call Mandy Bibler at 352-674-1779 or email her at Mandy.Bibler@thevillageshealth.com. There is a $40 charge for the four-week program, and participants do not need to be a Villages Health patient. No referral is needed.

The more we offer classes of this sort, the more requests we receive to continue and expand on them, said Amy Wixted, population health manager for The Villages Health. Expressive therapy is a wonderful option to engage with an individual in a creative way that isnt threatening and can allow for the healing process, or even a self-reflective process, to begin.

Reaching More People

As expressive therapy expands within medical settings, it is also expanding in its use for different demographics and populations of people.

There has been a lot of focus over the years in ... looking at inclusivity and diversity, said Dave Gussak, a professor in the graduate art therapy program at Florida State University and project coordinator for the FSU/FI Department of Corrections Art Therapy in Prisons Program.

While art therapy isnt the best option for everyone, it can be used in a lot of different environments for a lot of different clientele, Barlow said.

Barlows particular environment also is the prison setting. She works with inmates at the Marion Correctional Institution and Lowell Correctional Institution.

In the past 25 years, the number of art therapists in prison settings has expanded exponentially, Gussak said.

If theres any environment that calls for a non-verbal approach to therapeutic expression, its the prison environment, Gussak said. We allow a context for them to tell their stories without having to say it out loud.

Art therapists use different materials to invoke different emotions.

Working with watercolors, for example, creates a more regressive and emotive environment while using a pencil and a ruler is a more cognitive task.

Barlow sometimes uses mediums such as clay or paint to give participants a texture to work with.

Theyre able to recognize these objective things and see thoughts as thoughts rather than part of themselves, Barlow said.

Gussak might start a session by asking the inmates to spend five minutes drawing how they feel that day. Next, he might give them a limited number of materials and ask them to make something out of nothing.

They also do group directives, where they build off of each others work.

Many studies that weve done over the years have demonstrated that it decreases depression, increases socialization, problem solving, anger management and the ability to focus, Gussak said.

Another area of focus is children with autism and other disorders.

Adventures in Movement for the Handicapped Inc. is a national non ===profit organization that works with children with autism, ADHD, visual and hearing impairments, brain injuries, intellectual disabilities and more using music and specialized movement education to help kids learn to relax, listen, concentrate and improve gross and fine motor skills.

Music has a way of getting to people in a way that nothing else does, said Jo Geiger, founder of the program. Its soothing. It relaxes us so that the brain can start to relax and function better.

Though this years event has been canceled, AIM has a golf tournament every year at the Nancy Lopez Legacy golf course in The Villages to raise money for its cause.

Additionally, people are living longer, which increases the need for services for a variety of populations, Marcow Speiser said.

For example, every few months at Sumter Place via the Tri-County Caregiver Resource Center, individuals with cognitive impairments and Parkinsons disease and their caregivers gather for music therapy.

When you watch it, you can actually see the energy, happiness and joy that it creates, said Amy Cearley, owner of the TCCRC.

Cearley brings in a music therapist to lead the group through well known songs, asking them to sing along or guess the decade the song is from. Participants also get instruments to play, like tambourines or bells to wear on their wrists.

I feel like it really just gives them a moment that matters, Cearley said. As we know, with people who have memory loss, its important for people to still have great moments and moments of joy. I think this is something they can easily do on a social level. That memory bank of music is still there.

Donna Frost, of Summerfield, took her grandmother, Ora Sheffield, to the sessions before she passed away.

Sheffield had Parkinsons disease, and Frost said she would come alive with the music.

She started getting more active, Frost said. She started concentrating, because they would do exercises for swallowing, and she started practicing that. Theyd play the old songs that they remember, and sometimes one person would start off singing something, and another would finish. Theyd even make up songs. It was a really big help to my grandmother.

Senior writer Kristen Fiore can be reached at 352-753-1119, ext. 5270, or kristen.fiore@thevillagesmedia.com.

Link:
Villagers find relief in artistic therapies - The Villages Daily Sun

Related Posts

    Your Full Name

    Your Email

    Your Phone Number

    Select your age (30+ only)

    Select Your US State

    Program Choice

    Confirm over 30 years old

    Yes

    Confirm that you resident in USA

    Yes

    This is a Serious Inquiry

    Yes

    Message:



    matomo tracker