For centuries, artists have used charcoal, paint, music, movement, and drama to capture and communicate the beauty of the external world around them. But what if the real masterpiece lies within? Research shows that the creative arts are not merely a medium for creation, but often a vessel for transformation – a method in which individuals nonverbally or physically express their inner, most complicated thoughts, emotions, fears, or life experiences that can ultimately lead to restoration and healing. Read on to learn from six board-certified therapists in Chattanooga about the different forms of creative arts therapy and how the act of creating can positively impact an individual’s psyche.
Jas Milam, ATR/BC
Registered, Board-Certified Art Therapist
Owner and Founder • Daily Practice Art, Art Therapy, and Wellness
For more than 20 years, Jas Milam has helped her clients put emotions to paper, canvas, wood panels, and more – though her life as an artist extends well beyond that. As the owner and founder of Daily Practice Art, Art Therapy, and Wellness, she believes that visual art can help save lives. Mostly because it helped to save hers first.
“I have identified as an artist since childhood – painting, drawing, and sculpting my way through school,” Milam explains. “It was only natural that I would use art in my own healing from addictions, pain, and injustice in my 20s. I discovered that the art never lies! Art and therapy saved my life. I knew of art therapy and returned to grad school so I could learn more and help others who ‘speak art.’ I am still learning and still painting.”
Because engaging in visual art therapy promotes neuroplasticity – the brain’s capacity to reorganize through new neural connections – and stimulates the brain’s regions linked to emotion, memory, and creativity, Milam is able to help clients manage addictions, anxiety, stress, and depression, as well as increase their awareness of self and others.
“Art is a language,” she says. “It accesses a different part of the brain/consciousness, getting us in touch with parts of ourselves that yearn to be heard from. Things we don’t know that we do know – that we need to know. We do talk some in art therapy, but some things are best ‘said’ without words.”…