Although professional therapist have known for years, but now art therapy is ‘officially’ healing according to the World Health Organization.
I’ve written an introduction to art therapy if you’d like to know a little bit more about it.
The World Health Organization or WHO recently released recent studies of art therapy forms. Here is a quote from their European site:
“Bringing art into people’s lives through activities including dancing, singing, and going to museums and concerts offers an added dimension to how we can improve physical and mental health,” says Dr Piroska Östlin, WHO Regional Director for Europe a.i.
WHO has also written an in depth 146 page review of their findings on art therapy. You can read more here. MindBodyGreen has written a great summary alternative.
Oddly, the following popular blog post from Inverse, well it’s catching title anyway, Inverse post discredits any prior real art therapy (where therapists actually have degrees in at do it everyday.) However, the entire article is an interview of an educated professional in the field.
Ms. Kaimal of Drezel University, states that if art is not specific to the patient, it could do harm. She goes on to indicate art in general, not in a clinical setting, could be restorative and beneficial.
Although the WHO aren’t the first to bring light to this, I’m glad they are dedicating time and efforts the topic. The more conversation about therapeutic art, the more people are inclined to create, draw, paint, or just be involved in the art atmosphere in general.
