So, how do we approach this holiday that celebrates all that is primal, scary and grotesque when real life already contains enough horror, anxiety, and reminders of suffering as it is?
Personally, I am experiencing a kind of dissonance around the macabre/horror themes. Right now skeletons and bloody characters presented as lighthearted fun feels too triggering, too real. But I’m also aware of the importance of being able to “play” with the death anxiety we all share, especially in safe contexts. Although this is a universal, often unspoken fear that connects us all, naming it is completely taboo in our death-denying, youth-obsessed, toxic positivity culture. So instead, we avoid it altogether, relegate it to one holiday a year, or save it for funerals, news, and obituaries. Author Ruth Soukup remarks, “Fear is a funny thing... The very instinct designed to protect us also holds us back.” Indeed, in small doses, leaning into our fears and being “counterphobic” can offer practice in diffusing and eventually overcoming them. This includes digging into aspects of ourselves that are less desirable or “unknown.” Drama therapy theory emphasizes the importance of role flexibility on mental health: the ability to wear many hats, evolve, and exercise many aspects of ourselves as opposed to staying stuck in one, fixed role. In a safe context like ongoing therapy or through one’s artistic practice, becoming acquainted with the “shadow side” or darkness within ourselves can be a vital part of both self discovery and healing. #halloween #currentevents #arttherapy #shadowside #deathanxiety Post by Sharon Itkoff Nacache ATR-BC LCAT LPAT PMH-C Pumpkin design by author’s son
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Today, on World Mental Health Day, with so much of the world grappling from personal and global challenges that directly impact their loved ones or their own sense of wellbeing and safety, I am reminded of the power of art to express what it means to be human. And connecting to that humanity, within ourselves and one another, is inherently healing. Susan Magsamen, the director of the International Arts+Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, reflects on the vulnerable and humbling experience of hospitalization, and how this can be “one of the most stressful experiences anybody ever has.” The Arts in Medicine department of New York City Health and Hospitals was developed in 2018 as part of a growing movement in healthcare to utilize the arts for healing. Their collection of artwork set in public spaces around hospital facilities across the boroughs helps “create an enriched environment that can lower stress, anxiety and blood pressure, improve moods and lead to faster healing.” I feel honored to be able to collaborate with NYC Health + Hospitals and the Whitney Museum of American Art and implement a deeply personal, art-centered approach to care through ongoing arts-based wellness workshops. This approach focuses on close-looking dialogue and creative resilience skill-building to help hospital employees in every role cultivate self compassion, build community and camaraderie, alleviate symptoms of burnout, and develop mindful stress management tools on the job. Photos of the program and more about the history, impact, and vision of the program are featured here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/08/nyregion/nyc-hospitals-public-art.html Post by Sharon Itkoff Nacache ATR-BC LCAT LPAT PMH-C  Creative Support for Caregivers is a virtual art therapy group using an open studio process for anyone in NJ/NY who identifies as a caregiver and is interested in developing a restorative creative practice for stress management. Whether it is someone in a helping profession, the “giver” or “caretaker” in a romantic relationship or among one’s social group, a parent of younger child(ren), older child of an elderly parent, or those “sandwiched” in between, this is THEIR creative space. Group objectives include:
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