Anthroposophical - art therapy
Painting, drawing and modelling are recognised as an important
part of a child’s
development. But by the time most people are adult, they’re
self-conscious about
‘doing art’ - and so miss out on a pleasure
that can also benefit our health.
The therapeutic effects of artistic effort are used in
hospitals, but they can be
equally valuable to people who are well — helping
to prevent illness, to relieve
stress and to increase emotional and Spiritual satisfaction
and strength. These
benefits don’t depend on artistic skill or talent,
but come from the activities
themselves, such as feeling the emotive and stimulating
effects of colour observing
the world more carefully, concentrating on shape, harmony
and form, and thinking
about the mood or spirit one wants to achieve in a painting
or sculpture.
The therapeutic philosophy of Rudolf Steiner which inspired
Weleda also includes
art therapy. “Artistic therapy has a deep and direct
effect on the soul. This can
gradually bring about improvements in the patient’s
vitality, physical health and
emotional well-being”, For art therapy is not just
a question of getting a paint box
and pitching in. In the four-year course, the student therapists
- who often want the
skill to expand another career, such as teaching - learn
how different forms of
artistic activity are suited to particular health situations.
“People with anxiety-related problems benefit tremendously
from modelling work
or sculpture. Working with your hands, with substance and
space, is a very different
experience to working with colour. And finding a sense of
balance, and feeling
centred, through building a structure, is extremely ordering
for people who feel
their life is disordered. It’s as though in modelling
a piece of clay we can learn to
find the centre of ourselves at the same time. What you
do outwardly through your
actions works inwardly.
“Colour everybody can sense. It stimulates responses
- whether surprise or wonder
or joy or calm or sadness. So if we bring someone a colour
experience we are
helping them to be in touch with their feelings. But within
painting you can work
more towards form, which can help a patient to feel more
structure in their lives.
Or on the other hand, you can also use painting to help
someone to loosen up, to
let go. It can be very helpful for people who get stuck
with obsessional problems,
such as eating disorders. Painting and colour work is very
challenging and it can
offer a goal to work towards. Cancer patients benefit tremendously
from colour
work.
“In veil painting, we work on watercolour paper which
is stretched onto a frame at
board. The surface is dry, and we apply very soft subtle
colours in layers that have
to dry in between each application of paint. So it’s
a very slow, quiet process and
there’s a lot of waiting involved. It makes you hold
back, and take stock. The
colour can build up and become gradually quite strong, but
it retains a wonderful
luminosity almost like a with veil painting with a particular
rhythm and stroke and
they have told me that it is the only time when they feel
they can really breathe.
“Wet painting has opposite qualities. We work on
wet paper with watercolour, and
you have to work quickly. The main benefit is to stimulate
spontaneity and
imagination. But for someone who is rather anxious, putting
paint onto wet paper
where it runs away and creates unexpected happenings is
not easy: They may
benefit from the structuring effect of modelling or drawing
to begin with. We aim
to begin where people are, and slowly support their steps
to become either freer or
more formed.
“With colour, the red range often brings warmth,
especially the more orange reds.
The bluer reds introduce something more ‘noble’
into the warmth. Then the blues
bring a quieter more peaceful feeling, and the violets bring
an ‘inner mood’, perhaps
a meditative quality — warmer or colder depending
on which range you go to.
Greens bring quite an equlibriurn, bringing you closer to
nature, a more ‘earthy
experience, although you can work with some greens in a
very luminous, uplifting
way as well.
“We also work with black and white, particularly
drawing, using charcoal, pencil,
crayon. Black ant white can bring something very orderly
and focused. Some
people need that simplicity. Some people are afraid of working
with darkness, of
making an impact onto the paper - or their lives. Working
gradually with black and
white, introducing more dark areas, can help people to ‘grip’
their lives. Some do
not need to work in a representational manner with colour
and form, they need to
work with dark and light in a more abstract way - you could
call it a ‘mood’ way”.
The Hibernia School of Artistic Therapy offers a four year
vocational training in art
therapy, except for people on sabbatical from their previous
jobs, who can come
for up to two years, for a refresher course or to develop
their existing careers with
artistic work.
The students have sculpture and clay modelling, painting
and drawing studies, and
medical lectures every week, given by doctors. The main
tutors are two GPs who
are practising locally within the NHS, and there are also
visiting specialist lecturers.
Then students have courses in speech and drama, art history,
eurythmy movement
therapy, and gardening in the School’s bio-dynamic
garden.
At the end of training, the students start to go out once
a week into the community,
working under supervision either with the elderly, with
maladjusted teenagers, or
Children’s groups, or prison work. They also go on
observation periods to watch
qualified therapists at work.
There are basic human qualities required in any therapeutic
work: you have to
identify and work on these in yourself to become a good
therapist, such as being
able to listen and observe. The art therapist is not a counsellor,
but the therapy is a
way of “accompanying the patient on their journey”.
For as with all treatment that
has sprung from Rudolf Steiner’s teaching, it is based
on the belief that illness is not
just an unfortunate accident in our lives, that we can make
more sense of it than
that: it can also be an opportunity.
Information Courtesy of
:
Hibernia School of Artistic Therapy
Centre for Science and Art
Lansdown Road,
Stroud,
Glos. GL5 1BB
