How can one learn to cope with the everyday anxieties of life? Art could be a great start — at least according to Kennesaw State’s Counseling and Psychological Services.
KSU’s CPS hosted the “Art 4 Healing” workshop Thursday, Sept. 12, run by a certified facilitator from the campus therapy center.
Art 4 Healing was developed by Art & Creativity Inc., a nonprofit that provides art workshops to partners around the country with the goal of helping people recover from life’s trials.
“[Art 4 Healing’s mission] is to support emotional healing through art and creative expression for those living in pain, grief, fear or stress,” according to the website. “Our individual workshops and community programs offer expression, encouragement, clarity, and insight.”
Not requiring students to have any painting expertise, this art class was held at KSU for students to express their feelings through painting. As a part of the class, participants worked through their feelings using three different canvases with several prompts.
The Art 4 Healing class’ ambiance consisted of calming music where painters were told to take deep breaths periodically. The class started out by having participants use color to express how a word made them feel.
“Art can speak more than words,” senior psychology major Imani Francis said. “Colors can say things that words can not.”
This was Francis’ second time attending the class. She portrayed the class to be a nice break that brought mindfulness and self-reflection. Francis said she recommends the class to other students at KSU.
One of the canvases was named “What’s Going On?”
Using paint to navigate through negative experiences and feelings, participants used two colors to represent their love and support systems. While they painted with those colors to resemble positive feelings, time was permitted for participants to describe how they were feeling in the moment.
“[Art 4 Healing is a] safe space to be creative,” senior electrical engineering major Cheyanne Richert said. “I enjoyed the guided portion because it helped me to stay on task.”
The instructor of the class offered several prompts to help painters process their feelings through their work. The instructor also suggested that participants use journaling as another outlet to help process their feelings and manage stress. At the end of the class, participants were able to take home their artwork.
“I did not think it would leave such a positive impact on me,” information systems graduate student Karen Dsouza said. “I loved it so much. I want to come back to the next one.”
The next Art 4 Healing class is Friday, Sept. 27, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and registration can be found on the Counseling and Psychological Services website for the class.
