Healing through Playing with Art: Art Therapist Joan Stanford (vegan), Part 1 of 3

According to the British Association of Art Therapists, art therapy is a form of psychotherapy that uses art media as its primary mode of expression and communication. Art is not used as a diagnostic tool but as a medium to address emotional issues, which may be confusing and distressing. We are honored to feature and interview with Joan Stanford, a vegan board-certified art therapist, who will graciously introduce us to the practical uses and positive effects of art therapy. “The directive that I was taught in my training was to hold it in your hands as though it was your heart or you. Something, so you’re very gentle with it. Like you spent five minutes just holding clay in your hands and manipulating it in some fashion. How did that make you feel? And often, people cry because it’s a tactile medium, so it’s a very early stage in our development, pre-verbal and all of that, and it just opens up things.” “A dramatic example I remember was with a young boy that had night terrors. He had a really horrific thing happen in his life. And I asked him to, on this piece of paper, put something symbolic of the fear, so he put… and then I said, ‘Well, now fold that up, hide it.’ So, he folded it up… but over the next few weeks, he stopped having the night terrors.”