Art and music provide natural sources of inspiration, entertainment, relaxation and therapeutic distraction. Additionally, they allow individuals to express their emotions through art while discovering their full artistic potential.
Creative arts therapy programs at MUSC provide patients and their families with positive healing experiences while complementing biomedical treatments.
Emotional Connection
Art and music have long been used as forms of expression to provide comfort, inspire growth and build community connections. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that they’re both utilized as therapeutic approaches in recovery treatment – they serve as powerful tools to alleviate emotional traumas while decreasing anxiety levels and encouraging relaxation.
Music and art can provide effective nonverbal forms of expression for patients who struggle to verbalize themselves. Furthermore, creative therapies interact with different parts of the brain than verbalization alone and allow individuals to explore complex emotions without needing to verbalize their feelings directly.
Music can help activate parts of the brain associated with emotion, cognition and sensation, which in turn helps patients cope with difficult feelings such as anger, fear and sadness resulting from experiencing trauma or mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Physical Connection
When in a bad mood, music therapy is one way to ease it. Art therapy has proven itself effective at relieving stress, improving mood and helping individuals process feelings.
Art therapists utilize various creative techniques to help their patients access their subconscious minds and express themselves creatively through drawing, painting and sculpture. Art therapy’s creative process helps patients address difficult emotions like anxiety and depression while also developing cognitive skills such as focus and attention-to-detail.
Music therapy includes various musical activities from singing to drumming and can be utilized both individually or within peer group settings. Studies have demonstrated its efficacy at relieving symptoms of anxiety and depression while improving mood, self-esteem and overall quality of life. Furthermore, music therapy can serve as an invaluable supplement to addiction treatment programs as it offers relaxation as an outlet for pain while simultaneously helping build more positive narratives surrounding recovery journeys.
Transformative Experiences
Art and music therapy are powerful tools in the recovery process. They can help individuals build skills to manage triggers and difficult times, foster self-awareness and facilitate relaxation and healing; additionally they offer people an avenue for expressing emotions which might otherwise be difficult to express verbally.
Just as birdwatchers and food tasters can anticipate what unheard birdsong might sound like or predict what an unknown dish may taste like, music and art can stimulate dopamine in our reward pathways to provide transformative experiences. Of course, whether or not an experience can truly transform depends on both individuals involved.
Music therapy has long been used in hospitals as an aid in soothing patients who are hospitalized due to illness or injury. Music can evoke emotion, stimulate discussion and facilitate expression while decreasing stress hormones; its use also allows some people to share painful emotional trauma more freely than through verbal dialogue alone.
Motivation
Art and music therapy offer individuals a nonverbal means of expressing emotions that may be difficult to articulate verbally, thus increasing self-esteem and creating a sense of accomplishment that supports recovery efforts.
Creative activities such as painting, sculpting, drawing and drumming offer people an avenue for exploring their emotions in a safe space where there is no judgment. Furthermore, these creative outlets give individuals an opportunity to craft a positive narrative around their recovery journey.
Focusing on something artistic can help alleviate anxiety and PTSD symptoms when they resurface, diverting one’s attention away from fears and anxiety. Furthermore, playing an instrument can reduce stress and blood pressure, help develop cognitive skills like focus and attention-to-detail as well as increase social interactions and collaboration towards common goals – benefits especially useful to those recovering from addiction undergoing treatment for substance use disorder – in fact studies have indicated that those participating in art or music therapy while receiving substance use disorder treatments tend to remain sober longer than those not participating.
