People know that coloring is a stress reliever,
but art therapy is really
about putting what's on the inside,
getting that out and putting it into physical form.
At the Road Home Program, we serve men and women,
veterans and their families who are dealing
with the invisible wounds of war in life.
We have a staff that understands, cares
and knows about those challenges
around post-traumatic stress, military sexual trauma,
brain injury, traumatic brain injury
and even moral injury.
They're doing cognitive processing therapy.
They're doing emotion communication skills groups.
The art therapy group allows them to express themselves
in a different way,
and I hear very often how they can walk into this room
and kind of breathe a sigh of relief
because they know they get to let their brain
have a little rest.
I went through the intensive outpatient program
here at Road Home with Rush University
to help me with PTSD symptoms,
but also orthopedic issues.
Art therapy is like you're standing back
from the trauma.
Art therapy allows you to back up,
take a look at what's going on,
analyze it, and bring some healing to that situation,
simply by utilizing a pen, a pencil, a brush,
a paint, a chalk, sculpting.
They create a mask in the IOP,
and how that's introduced is I say,
"We all have a mask that we wear.
Wherever we go, we have a public self.
We have a way we present ourselves to others
or a way that others see us.
And then we have a private self on the inside."
All of that stuff they're carrying,
they finally get to release it.
A part of PTSD is the avoidance,
so they're very good at keeping that stuff inside,
and so it's such a relief to bring it to the outside.
She brought out this mask and I go,
"Oh, I can make a mask of my sister."
I made it because I appreciated her so much.
Debra was one of the first people I met
and is so passionate about art
and the healing aspects of art.
We hit it off right away
and just with her passion and helping people
and her creativity and all of her vulnerability
in the art that she makes, I think she's incredible.
So that's a neat thing about the job
is that I'm here to help,
but I also receive a lot in return.
It's got a lot of monochromatic on the outside,
grays, whites, blacks,
but inside it's pretty much all red.
I wanted to add some blue so it's got some
red, white and blue in it.
In certain ways, the mask is a cage for my toxicity.
So in certain ways, the mask is a filter for that.
It's a filter so that my brutal honesty
doesn't hurt people's feelings
but also so that they don't hurt my feelings either.
I mean, I have feelings, too.
Travis really connected with the artwork.
Watching him work and seeing the wheels turn,
I knew he was working on something very deep and meaningful.
He had actually created a mold for the mask.
I'd never seen anyone do that before.
And so, that was something that I'll always remember
because that was a first for me,
so I thought it was very creative.
When looking at the other art,
it's really a conversation piece and it's really a way
to communicate with other veterans.
I shared things that I haven't shared with anybody
or just like very few very close friends and family.
To be in an environment where there are other veterans
that I might not know exactly what they went through,
but we all have similar symptom sets.
And so, being able to rally around that
in order to help each other cope,
it was really good, a really good experience.
When I came to Rush, Stephanie was helpful.
She wasn't judgmental and a lot of times in the military,
you don't say things about stuff
because you don't want to get judged.
When they experience, they realize how healing it is
and how beneficial it is,
and so, they leave really different people,
and art therapy is a part of that.
What I would tell other veterans is,
you owe yourself that chance to come here
and participate, embrace the process,
embrace the suck.
As much as it might suck, you owe yourself that.
And your family and people that you care about,
they'll notice it too, they'll appreciate it.
I'd really love to be an art therapist now
because I see how it helps people
and how it has helped me.
I can sleep through the night.
I can have a conversation without breaking into tears.
I'm able to talk about deeper things with people
because I'm able to pull the emotion out of it,
so to say.
And with that, use the terminology
and use the basic healing powers of art
to get to a better place in my mind.