Art therapy offers creativity, self-expression

ART THERAPY Offers Fun, Creativity and Self-Expression

By Ginny McCabe

Art is not only fun, creative and inspiring for many, but the benefits of expression through art are far-reaching across the Cleveland community. For families and individuals living with special needs, art therapies can improve communication and concentration, as well as increase self-esteem and confidence.

BENEFITS OF ART THERAPY

People of all ages and abilities can benefit from art therapy programs, including people with Down syndrome and autism spectrum disorder, and those with physical or neurological disabilities, including cerebral palsy or a traumatic brain injury. Individuals with special needs are integrated into classes with those of all abilities.

“Art therapy is a mental health profession that uses art to provide support for people that are coping with emotional needs, physical needs or cognitive needs, so we work with people in a wide variety of ways,” says Cheryl Pete, ATS, clinical director at Art Therapy Studio in Cleveland.

According to Pete, who works alongside Executive Director Michelle Epps at Art Therapy Studio, “Art therapy can help people express themselves, cope with difficult situations — and there’s also a physical component, so if people have trouble with fine motor skills, or even gross motor movements, art therapy is a way they can build those skills up, and still express themselves.”

Art therapy also is a great means of self-expression and storytelling, Pete says, and it has a positive impact on selfesteem and confidence. Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood. Photo by Wetzler Photography.

EVERYBODY IS AN ARTIST

If an artist has a specific need, there are adaptive tools art therapists can use to help, like using a special art board, or raising or lowering a table to accommodate a wheelchair. Artists in the group also help each other, so if someone has mobility issues and they need paint, one of their peers will go get the paint for them or wash their brushes. There are a wide variety of students, including those who engage in art therapy while they recover from a stroke, individuals looking for socialization, and those who are disabled with traumatic brain injuries.

“There is a lot of focus in recent years on providing opportunities for people with disabilities to connect with their community,” Pete says. “It happens really organically here in our space because you have somebody that may be recovering from a stroke sitting next to somebody that might have cerebral palsy, sitting next to somebody who’s retired and wants to have something social to do, sitting next to a person with a traumatic brain injury. So, we have this diverse group of people — what they share is art, and they build these really beautiful, close-knit relationships.”

She says it comes down to the fact that there are no stigmas or labels, and “everybody is an artist.”

In an effort to introduce the benefits of art therapy services to the community as a whole, Art Therapy Studio will use its Facebook page — facebook.com/ arttherapystudio — to provide weekly sessions where individuals and families can use household items to perform art therapy “tasks.” It also allows participants an opportunity to share their work.

Tammy Shella, Ph.D., ATR-BC, art therapy manager for Arts & Medicine Institute at Cleveland

REGIONAL PROGRAMS

ART THERAPY STUDIO

Art Therapy Studio offers a wide range of classes, from those that focus on a specific media like painting and drawing to clay molding or fiber arts, to an “Open Studio” format, where artists can choose the mediums in which they work. For more information, go to arttherapystudio.org.

BECK CENTER FOR THE ARTS

Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood is another innovator when it comes to creative arts therapies, private lessons and adaptive individual lessons in music, art, dance and theater performance. For more information, go to beckcenter.org.

CLEVELAND CLINIC ARTS & MEDICINE INSTITUTE

Students explore a variety of art projects using a variety of art materials including watercolor, acrylic painting, clay or molding, jewelry and more. Projects often are adapted based on the needs of each patient. For more information, go to my.clevelandclinic.org.

DANCING WHEELS COMPANY & SCHOOL

Dancing Wheels believes that if dance is an expression of the human spirit, it is best expressed by people of all abilities. At its school in Cleveland, students with and without disabilities come to learn a wide variety of different movements and dance classes, like yoga and tap. For more information, go to dancingwheels.org. FINE ARTS Top: A young patient ASSOCIATION doing art. Photo The Fine Arts Association submitted by Cleveland offers arts education Clinic. Bottom: Photo classes, private lessons and submitted by more. Arts experiences Art Therapy Studio. are inclusive of individuals of all ages, backgrounds and ability levels. Fine Arts Association provides arts education in a family-centered, safe, creative environment where students can experience the arts in a personal way. For more information, go to fineartsassociation.org.

INSPIRATION DANCE ACADEMY

Benefits for participants of the program include exercise and encouragement in a positive environment. Dancers also have an opportunity to socialize with their peers and build self-esteem. For more information, go to inspirationsdance.org. Clinic, says those with special needs are offered individualized art therapy in the same manner that individuals of all abilities receive therapy.

“People with special needs are not separated out from the general patient population. They are going to come in just like everybody else,” she says. “We don’t think of it as special needs, we think of it as, ‘What does this person need?’”

If there are artists who have some difficulty — where they might need to have tools adapted, or to use very specific media that is easier for them to work with or that would help them to best accomplish their goals — those things would be considered as part of that person’s needs assessment. “Basically, our definition of art therapy is the creation of art with an art therapist to assist in emotional and physical healing and growth,” Shella says. “It fits the general art therapy definition, but it’s much more specific for the needs of medical patients.” Medical patients have a lot of things in common in terms of their emotional needs, such as high levels of anxiety, because they are taken out of their normal life and normal routine, and thrown off by an unexpected diagnosis, she says, such as cancer, a transplant, or anything you can imagine that would land someone in the hospital, even for a short period of time. “Nobody wants to be in the hospital, so we help to alleviate some of the anxiety and fears that come along with that,” Shella says. According to Shella, about 62 percent of adults have said art therapy helped reduce their anxiety, and another 56 percent have said it improved their mood. “Patients are sometimes surprised at what the art brings out in them, and they weren’t expecting to see all the symbolic ways that their stress, anxieties and fears were being expressed. For other patients, it helps them build a skill set they never knew or realized they had, like silk painting,” Shella says. When these individuals build a new skill through artmaking, it can help them build their self-esteem again, and it makes them feel more whole, she says.

MAKING DANCE ACCESSIBLE TO ALL

Mary Verdi-Fletcher, president and founding artistic director of Dancing Wheels Company & School in Cleveland, says dance is physically, mentally and emotionally therapeutic just by the nature of the movement and music.

“We have several components to our organization. We have a professional company that performs all over the world. We do concert performances, guest appearances, workshops and master classes on the road, so we can do a wide variety of performances and performance styles,” says Verdi-Fletcher. “Then there’s our school, based in Cleveland, where students come with and without disabilities. They all take class together.”

As one of the first and most accomplished professional wheelchair dancers, Verdi-Fletcher has been a pioneering force in the development and success of physically integrated dance worldwide for four decades. In 2014, she was awarded the “Governor’s Award for Arts Education in Ohio” for major contributions to dance in Ohio.

“I’m a person with a disability myself, and when adaptive lessons via telehealth,” says Ed Gallagher, director I first started Dancing Wheels, I saw that there of education at Beck Center for the Arts. “People have the weren’t very many opportunities for those with option to participate virtually, or in person.” disabilities to be a part of the dance community,” Gallagher says participants can engage with a creative arts Verdi-Fletcher says. “I have always been raised therapist in sessions remotely using a HIPAA-compliant level in the idea of being inclusive, so to include nonof Zoom. disabled people in the world of disability as well, I thought And, for those who don’t thrive in remote access sessions, that was important.” there will be in-person offerings available.

“We became much more inclusive as “That’s probably one of the biggest the years went on in our age, ethnicity and challenges we’ve had, and we’ve seen it gender, so it really involves all people of all with little kids without disabilities and with abilities,” she says. “It provides a lot more disabilities, that after a short period of time equality across the board.” they can only look at the screen for so long. So, we’re adapting to provide in-person VIRTUAL OR TELEHEALTH AND sessions for those that have a real hard IN-PERSON OPPORTUNITIES challenge with the distance sessions,” says

Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood, in a Gallagher. collaboration with Cuyahoga County Board Like Beck Center for the Arts’ of Developmental Disabilities, has been Photo submitted by Dancing Wheels approach, as things start to open back widely recognized for its annual “Razzle Company & School. up, many arts centers across the region Dazzle” stage production, which features will offer participants both online and inthose in the Creative Arts Therapies program. In 2021, Beck person opportunities. Center will celebrate the 20th anniversary of “Razzle Dazzle.” “Overall, it has been very successful. As one can imagine, Other programs created for those with special needs include there have been people that didn’t miss a beat, some that sensory-friendly performances that are staged for audience took a little bit of time, and those that just weren’t able members with disabilities. to make the switch for various reasons, but overall it has

“From the Creative Arts Therapies end of things...we're worked well, and people all came to it in their own time,” offering music therapy, arts therapy, adaptive dance and Gallagher says.