Artful healing

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If myriad colours delight you when you are down, and rhythmic brush strokes mean therapeutic solitude to you, art therapy can be a potentially healing and life-changing route for your physical as well as mental tribulations. At a time when alternate therapeutic solutions are becoming a craze among many looking for inner peace and a healthy mental state, art therapy as a preferred healing process is slowly yet steadily gaining steam in the capital.
“At the time of art therapy’s inception in the capital, it was basically used to provide mental solace to special children. But off late this as a proper healing process has also gained popularity among adults,” opines art critic Alka Raghuvanshi.
“This whole concept developed in the West as a process practiced only by trained professionals, but in the last four to five years it has gone beyond clinical practice. Any kind of art activity (whether dance, music or painting) that boosts confidence in people and makes them feel better can be termed as art therapy,” opines artist-cum-author Bulbul Sharma, who has been working in this field for the last 15 years.
“Because of the purity of the form of expression, art therapy is a great way to solve one’s inner complexities. A lot of mental health institutions have been practicing this concept for a long time with great results. For people who can’t express their thoughts through words, indulgence in art activity helps them put across their thoughts to other people easily,” adds Alka.
Bulbul says, “When I go for such workshops I usually help participants relax in the first place. They are people, who haven’t seen a brush before or for that matter haven’t had the pleasure of bringing paint to canvas. I try to bring their thoughts out on canvas, and I have had experienced great results. I even tried this on the women inmates of Tihar Jail.”
Other than individual practitioners many NGOs in the capital too have been working on these lines for many years. Whether it’s Very Special Arts India (VSAI), Muskan (an NGO) or Okhla Center for Mentally Handicapped children, many organisations have taken up the responsibility to apply art to cure day-to-day complexities in people and have been organising workshops with such themes.
“I have been working with colours as a treatment style for some time now. I ask enthusiasts to hold a pendulum in front of a chronology of colours and with the movement of the pendulum one can figure out the positive and negative energy in one’s mind. Every colour has its own property that attracts individual minds. It’s an ancient technique from the 18th Century. For example, I advise people who are depressed to use more of the colour red, as its properties can soothe trouble minds,” opines artist Niladri Paul, who has mastered the technique over years of practice.