So Where Do We Go From Here?
Well…Where are we? Most people spend an enormous amount of time during their lifetime seeking so “go somewhere different from where they are”. It is interesting to observe that no matter where anyone goes they end up with themselves, in roughly the same place. In clinical practice, helping someone explore their self, reach out to new dimensions of awareness and resolve conflict is the ultimate journey.
Accessing long forgotten memories and embracing the future allow a person to arrive into the present moment…imbued with the rich emotions and other sensory perceptions the journey provides. The frontier that beckons us, and always has is the cosmos at large…which is arguably where we all are going, coming from and are always in process with.
For your consideration from my first book Quantum Imagery: Why Creating Art Heals Us
Chapter 10
Art Psychotherapy, Autism, Developmental Disabilities, and Mental Health
“Healing only comes from that which leads the patient beyond himself and beyond his entanglements with ego.” – C.G. Jung
Why is it that art psychotherapy works for everyone especially people living with autism, other developmental disabilities and mental health issues?
The main reason is that the spiritual connection to light provides a calming, integrative experience that allows the body and mind to align with a pattern of emotional balance (homeostasis), setting the foundation for healing and growth.
Once this occurs, we see a significant reduction in distress, often manifested as anxiety and depression. In cases where the dis-ease experience has manifested for a long time, more serious mental illnesses can arise in the form of ADHD (attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder), bipolar disorder, major depression, psychosis, etc. Art psychotherapy is a service that, like any experience, builds in impact over time, facilitating personal healing and transformation.
It is important to admit that, even if we may understand the condition known as autism as being genetically created, children “on the spectrum” harbor emotional issues of frustrated expression, especially the aggressive impulse that leads to behaviors that are commonly misdiagnosed and misunderstood. These behaviors masquerade as defiance, hyperactivity, attention deficits, inability to focus (stay focused), impulsive movements, and self-stimulation. These children often use imaginative fantasy as an attempt to regulate their bodies and minds, which they experience as “out of control.”
The Western world’s current fragmented, disease-based model of care is rooted in behaviorism, the attempt to modify or extinguish maladaptive or unpleasant behaviors (because others cannot tolerate them). When we fail to integrate the wellness model and do not address the emotional (E-Motional) dimension of life, these children and adults receive a message, which is imprinted and reinforced upon their unconscious minds and hearts, that they are “Out of Control.” This implies that they require another person to provide the control, even if the well-intended support, such as “cueing” or “prompting,” is meant to relinquish control to the client.
This is a critical flaw in many treatment modalities. If all we do is look to modify behaviors without teaching emotional self-regulation, dignity, and self-empowerment, we will see a society with less and less people able to care for themselves. Moreover, not only does this “band-aid” philosophy dis-empower people, but it disconnects them from their creativity, which is the spiritual life force.
In the art psychotherapy experience—with its many innate cognitive skills along with fine and gross physical motor coordination skills that are necessary to create “art,”—the client receives the message that they are in charge of themselves…right from the beginning. Without this key concept—that the client is responsible for his or her self, there is no platform to understand any other phenomena, such as the extraordinary perceptions of sound, sight, hearing, taste, visions, etc. These phenomena are common to all humans but especially to people who are more “sensitive,” and at times more involved with their intuitions, than any “outer reality” we can offer.
All that is experienced perceptually by humans is not pathological. What we need is a way to tease away the pathological from the extraordinary, without threatening a person’s sense of autonomy.
All people can engage in art making, and in the hands of an experienced and well-trained art psychotherapist, balance is restored, spiritual growth occurs, and the healing journey is facilitated, allowing an individual to develop their potential, whatever the genetic, neurological realities may be.
Everyone has something to offer this world. We are all participating, no matter our station in life. We must ensure that everyone gets his or her fair opportunity to live creatively, receive appropriate support when healing is necessary, and contribute to the evolving human story.
Ed Regensburg, LCAT
Clinical Art Psychotherapist, Creative Sanctuary with Ed Regensburg, LCAT
