Justification

In communities large and small, the arts are used daily to reduce the experience of pain, help young ones express needs and emotions, and create a welcoming and uplifting environment – a path to joy for those who may feel disheartened.

It is well known that engaging in creative expression is vital to human health and well-being, to bridging the life experiences that divide people and society, and to helping people understand the human condition (Clift & Camic, 2016; Hanna, Rollins, & Lewis, 2017; Lambert, 2016; State of the Field Committee, 2009). 

Throughout the United States, the arts are being used to enhance personal healing, promote public health, and support community well-being, including relieving stress, decreasing feelings of loneliness, depression, and anxiety, encouraging creative thinking and increasing greater life satisfaction. The marriage of the arts and wellness practices is a natural example of how creativity connects, in this case, with the science of recovery, resilience and longevity. (2017, Janet Chu, Ph.D.)

Learning Objectives

• learn nonverbal means of communication through visual, auditory, and movement pathways that are still available to us when stress, trauma, language, ability, or culture interfere with speech

• engage the brain so much that it quite literally crowds out stress and enables the upper brain functions, necessary for learning, to come back online

• enhance positive emotions and not just reducing negative ones

• build agency and resilience in the discovery of something we can do to feel better

• cultivate and grow social and emotional learning skills

• share creative experiences to offer an organic way to be truly seen, heard, and connected