Art, Artists, and Mental Illness: A Pathway to Recovery

Contributed By:  Julie Hardman, B.A.

Clients of Fellowship Health Resources’ Cary Satellite Psychosocial Rehabilitation (PSR) program are finding new ways to express themselves through art. Julie Hardman, a student intern from North Carolina State University, has been working with individuals at the PSR program since August, 2010. In January, 2011, Julie implemented a six-week program entitled, “Art, Artists, and Mental Illness: A Pathway to Recovery.” The program bases its curriculum on research confirming the efficacy of integrating expressive art activities into the treatment plans of clients recovering from serious and persistent mental illness.

Once a week, participants gather to learn about a famous artist, known to have struggled with a mental illness, who has had a major influence on the international art world. Each of these artists used art as a means of recovery. They include Georgia O’Keefe, Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Edvard Munch and Claude Monet. In addition to discussing the life of the artist, group members survey one well-known painting from each artist, and use the resulting information as a catalyst to create a painting. Group facilitators encourage clients to create their own interpretation of the work and emphasize that it is not the goal to replicate the painting, but rather to use art as a vehicle for expression and symptom management.

The process of engagement provides participants with benefits such as reduction in hallucinations, anxiety, and depression. Creative expression offers the individual additional physiological benefits as well; e.g., decreased blood pressure and improved immunological functioning. Those involved in the program have expressed both joy and relaxation while creating their paintings. Fellowship Health Resources, in collaboration with Even Dance Exchange, will display the art this spring in downtown Raleigh, NC, at Arts Together, on May 31, 2011.