Sold! For $500 the art piece Escape by Deborah Leigh. Deborah Leigh is my aunt, and over 9 years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and in a period of coping with mental illness. When diagnosed in her late 50’s she started to “doodle” to help her relax. If someone told her then that she was going to sell hundreds of paintings around the world, she would have laughed in their face. My aunt needed a get away, a healthy way to manage what she was going though, and what spoke to her was art therapy. Art therapy is a method of creative expression that can help heal and strengthen mental well-being. This can either be creating it or viewing others art, it helps with expressing emotions, work on social skills and self-awareness as well as boost self esteem and cope with stress. The main goal of art therapy is to find a new personal way to help you with your struggles. This treatment helps improve the mental health of people who have to deal with addiction, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, trauma, grief and loss, cancer, dementia, PTSD and many others. What makes this method so amazing is that you don't need to have artistic ability or “talent” and it doesn't matter what age you are because everyone and anyone can benefit from it. There are also no rules in art, so if you feel like painting with your nose, so be it, go right ahead. Your art can also express as little or as much as you want. You can show the darkest memory you have or just paint a happy flower in the sun. Art is art and there is no judgement or limitations. There was a study done in https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17482631.2016.1267343 (2017) in a hospital where the employees displayed different types of art to see how the patients would react. And the study found that the patients felt more safe and it improved socialization. Art has been used to communicate and as a form of self expression for centuries. But this type of therapy has not been official since the 1940s. Professionals have realized that people who suffer from mental illness repeatedly expressed themselves in their sketches and artwork. This lead to using art as a healing strategy. Ever since then, this technique has become one of the most important therapeutic techniques. Lucy G
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