ART THERAPY (Sculpture, Painting and Drawing)

Art based therapies depend upon the active participation of the patient. An underlying principle of the anthroposophic approach is that a patient’s engagement in artistic activity can strengthen and support the inherent healthy forces that have been displaced by illness or crisis. During sessions (which are usually one-to-one), patients may reawaken creative abilities which have become dormant in times of crisis and ill health.

Art therapy is concerned with the patients’ emotional and spiritual health. No previous experience or artistic skill is required as patients are introduced to the materials used in therapies. It is the therapist’s task to work with the patient to discover the most supportive approach for their stay here, and which media would be most beneficial as a tool for self-expression or a means of nourishment.

At Park Attwood we use oil and plant colours, mineral-based water colours and various drawing materials, and sculpt with clay, beeswax, wood or sometimes even stone. Anthroposophic arts draw inspiration from the observation of nature, from the play of light and darkness, from colour, texture and form. Therapies may be supported by poetry, stories or themes from art history.

Art therapy can be helpful in a number of ways:

• it can be a method of self-expression when words fail. For example, some patients need to express feelings about their situation and can work through them non-verbally in an artistic medium.
• The artwork may promote dialogue between patient and therapist and may reveal new possibilities for progress through a patient’s illness or crisis
• some patients want to work with aspects of their life history (biography) by expressing significant events in their lives in colour or form, while they seek to comprehend the meaning of illness or crisis and the pattern of their lives and destiny.
• others may wish to explore form and colour, which can help patients to feel nourished and restored, and may promote a sense of re-alignment or connection with nature and the rhythms of life, and a general sense of integration and wellbeing.

If patients are too unwell to paint or sculpt, the therapist may paint for the patient, or read to him/her, or observe a flower or a tree for example.

Staff working with the arts at Park Attwood are either art therapists registered with the Health Professionals Council, or anthroposophic practitioners in visual arts registered with CAHSC (Council for Anthroposophical Health and Social Care). They receive regular supervision to support their work.

Click here to listen to a BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester program about sculpture therapy.

"On my third visit to Park Attwood, I requested to do veil painting therapy which I had heard from others was a slow activity. The gentle sweeping movements of the brush on paper have a calming effect that helps my breathing problems. I used a flat brush, and very watery paint, to create thin washes of watercolour, slowly building up the density in painted bands. Rotating the painting, repeatedly, created a geometric form. Each layer overlapped the previous layer, and as I slowly turned the paper, what emerged from the apparently abstract criss-crossing of paint layers was a luminous star of David. For me this was especially pertinent, or resonant, as I am Jewish. What I had underestimated was the transformative effect this therapy would have on my health. Whilst gradually building layer upon layer of paint, deepening colour, defining forms, sharpening edges, a similar process of construction was going on within me, as if the rhythms of this star were carried into my unconscious being. It was as if the painting synchronised with my breathing."