In the aftermath of Grant Cuts from the National Endowment of Arts (Nea) and its consequently trickle down to other arts organizations Along with more recent Cuts to Medicaid Coverage there is more reason Than Ever to Support and Endorse the Arts for Mental Health Treatment.
Utilizing Arts Modalities Like Writing, Music, Storytelling and Visual Arts Recently Are On the Rise in Mental Health Yet It is not a new phenomenon. Dr. Thema Bryant, Director of the Cultural and Trauma Research Laboratory at Pepperdine University, Minister, Sacred Artist and Author of the Upcoming Book, Matters of the Heart, Says that from the Black Communities in Baltimore to Liberia, Indigenous Ways have Lingered. “There was a separation from spirituality in your day-to-day life… It was something you just do Sunday Morning and then put on a shelf,” She say.
Dr. Bryant, Who Served as the President of the American Psychological Association (2023), also say that there was a cultural understanding and immersion in healing and through the arts. For Example, She Says that She was an assault survivor during her college years and that her previous connection with arts, wellness and healing helpd her through it. “And I Did Get Therapy,” She Adds. “I Went to the Counseling Center on Campus and in Addition to that I Danced and Prayed and Journaled and All of Those Things.”
“One of the Ways I Explained My Journey is that some people who experience violation end up up their bodies. And the reason i do think that happened to me is because I had a relationship with my body before the violation. And my relationshipship with my body was dancing. Myyself as an objet of Other people’s actions. “You do not watch in the soy arts unit something terrible happens. It is a part of life, a part of community and a part of rites of passage.”
Arts as rites of passage depicts a transformational program that nafeesah goldsmith, reiki master practitioner, community in an overseach specialist, founder and CEO of nafeesah A. Goldsmith LLC, participated in. Called the Ritual 4 Return (R4R), A Semester-Long Process that forms as its Centerpiece a rite of passing for citizens who have been incorporated to change their narrative through the arts, according to kevin boott, pH.D., Founder. The arts Modalities used in the program include dialogue, Writing, Theater, Movement, Storytelling and Mask Making, He Says.
Goldsmith, who was a recent cohort graduate on may 4, 2025 at New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) Says that she participated in the program because she felt like it was a necessary step Approaching the 10-Year Anniversary of Her Release. NJPAC Arts & Well-Being is the producting partner for R4R, making it available for participants. “I Envisioned a Space That Honored Both Our Shared Journeys and Individual Transformations,” She Adds.
Bott Says that childhood trauma has been experienced by 98% of people who serve jail time. “Shame is Highly Correlated with trauma, and is exacerbated by the experience of understanding prison, by incarceration Itself, and by post-release police that Impede the Resumbion of Normal Life in the Community,” He say. Trauma and shame Fuel Low Self-esteem, Hopelessness, Despair, Self-Coat, Suicidal Ideation, Self-Isolation, Increased Impulsity and Aggression, Difficult Maintaining Relationshipships, Making Decisions, and Feelings of Not Belonging in Social Social Socials. work to untangle the knots of trauma that live in our bodies with physical work that reconnects the lost connections between body, memory and language. Since trauma imposed a disintegrated sense of self, this form of reintegration is used, ”he adds.
The Program has been receive the 2024 Stanley N. Katz Prize for Excellence in Public Humanités and has receive Funding from Such Sources as Michelle Alexander’s Foundation (Author of The New Jim Crow), New Jersey Council for the Humanities, Columbia University’s Justice Lab, and New York Humanities. By participating in the R4R, Goldsmith SHES SHE EXPERIENCE “A Sacred Release. At the moment of Letting Go, Bearing Witnesis, and Being Witnessed.” “It was about reafirming what has always been with: my presence, my power, my divine knowing,” Goldsmith Adds.
Stacie Yeldell, Music Psychotherapist, Senior Adjunct Reading at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), Believes the Arts Are Intricatelly Connected to Who Wo Are, and They Provide an Avenue to Improve Wellness and Heal. “We are Creator Beings,” Yeldell Says, “We are connecting to a part of Ourselves that is beyond the mind. It’s beyond the body,” she adds. Yeldell entered this work from an artist’s Perspective, Looking to “Heal specificly from the Music Business,” and Auditioned for the Masters Music Therapy Program at New York University, where she trained. “And that meant this very mystical tree into the beautiful World of Music Therapy, Becoming a Music Therapist,” Yeldell Adds. She explains that with the arts we have an ability to reconnect with the inner child and make beselves whole again by working with the arts as a “play” process that connects the inner child.
She points out that creative therapists wouldn’t be naeded if still operated in an indigenous way, “yeldell says.” We need creative arts therapists as these kinds of modern-day shamans, to remind people to be creative as a way to heal themselves, Not a part of our medical system, right? ” Thankfully It’s Moving in That Direction. The Lancet
Aly Maier Lokuta, VP assistant, Arts & Well-Being, Njpac Says The Artsrx Program, their social prescibing program, Six Arts Activities Over Six MONTHS that participants choose from Agencies of Choice, not only njpac, but Other arts organizations in the community. Participants can bring two guests to combat the intimidation factor and loneliness, she say.
Lokuta Adds That They Never Pay for Activities. The “prescriptions” are made through various rush organizations include horizon blue cross blue shield of new jersey, rutgers university-new, newark department of health, returning citizens support group, rwjbarnabas health clinic at eastsoide high. Like Dr. Bryant, Lokuta also Believes that arts and health are rooted in ancient practice. “Before we had language, we blood; before we had an writer word, before we had the bio-medical model, the arts have always been a part of our integral healing process,” she say.
Yeldell believes if we remember our creative petrol as a tool for healing, we can heal not just bearslves but our communities through that connection. As Dr. Bryant reminds us, “there is a sacredness to it.”
HASBout The Author:: Jacquese Armstrong is a fellow wtH The Loreen Arbus Accessibility is Fundamenta Program, A FellowShip Created With Women’s Enews to Train Women with Disabilities as Professional Journalists So that may may, Research and Report on the Most Crucial Impact the Disabilities Community.
