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Apr 10, 2008
"At the deepest level, the creative process and the healing process arise from a single source. When you are an artist, you are a healer; a wordless trust of the same mystery is the foundation of your work and its integrity." --Rachel Naomi Remen
You Gotta Have Art
As health-care costs skyrocket, a down-to-earth approach to healing is emerging, complementing high-tech medicine with high-touch arts. The approach is based on the assumption that incorporating music, visual art, writing and performance into clinical care can increase feelings of well-being and even improve health -- an assumption that medical researchers are beginning to recognize the need to test with evidence-based studies. Integrating the arts into health care is in vogue, said Leonard Shlain, a laparoscopic surgeon in San Francisco, "because it works." And at New York University Medical Center, using art to reduce stress has become a priority, according to Marianne Hardart, director of creative arts therapies. "There's not anyone it doesn't work with," she said, including adults, adolescents and younger children.
BE THE CHANGE
Support someone who is regaining their health with a dose of high-touch arts, whether it is visual, performing, culinary, linguistic, or physical.
