The Healing Power of Arts

Recent research regarding the healing power of the arts reveals how deeply the arts can affect us in a positive way.

My personal background includes writing “poetry” at age 8 and beyond to express what was unsafe and reveal what was otherwise repressed; my years in dance and theatre provided outlets for my body and voice to express what otherwise could not be said; hours at the piano and coloring “in the lines” and painting “by number” provided safe “containers” for feelings that were unprocessed.  Those who know me have often heard me say, “The arts and God’s grace saved me”.

The same combination of the arts and God’s grace provided a path for my personal growth and healing and for my professional development.  Decades of my personal work in psychodrama, dance movement therapy and writing, which also incorporated music and art, grew my professional work as a trainer-educator-practitioner of psychodrama, group psychotherapy and sociometry.  Again and again I have had the powerful and moving experience of witnessing the profound healing power of all the arts.

A recent visit with my cousin, artist Patricia Padoll and seeing the beauty of her paintings and feeling in my whole being the transformative power of her work inspired me to share her work with you.  I noticed from my “mindful witness role” (the part of the self able to observe without judgment and with compassion one’s thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations) that viewing her art shifted my bodymindheartspirit to a state of stillness, deep breath, a luscious state of being transfixed by beauty and brought into “feeling held” by its Divine Light.

I have visited famous museums throughout the world and seen works of many great Masters.  Only a handful have moved me to this profound state of feeling “wrapped and held” by a scene infused with Divine light.  Patricia’s beautiful artwork is available to view and for purchase via her website www.padollart.com.

Once again, I am filled with gratitude for the arts and Divine grace.