It’s no secret that making art can be beneficial for mental well-being, and that’s why the STAR Psychiatric Day Treatment program on State Street in Springfield offers art therapy to complement its outpatient therapy services and mental health treatment groups.
Indeed, every year, the program teams up with our agency’s Adult Community and Clinical Services to host an art show featuring clients’ works. And, last month, STAR was well-represented at an art show sponsored by the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Western Massachusetts (NAMI) at the Chicopee Public Library. The exhibit showcased more than 100 art and poetry creations from people in the Springfield area, and displayed several pieces by CHD clients, including Barbara Thresher-Morrison, Kaiser Martin, Tiffany Edwards, and Ron Gauthier.
“Some of the artwork was directly inspired by living with a mental health issue,” said STAR Program Manager Michelle Cotugno. That was certainly the case with Thresher-Morrison. “I find that mixing poetry in art helps me deal with emotions I need to get out,” she said. “The painting usually expresses how I feel, and the sayings I put on them are what I’m going through at the time.” Her poetry-on-acrylic piece, “Depression,” begins, “It slowly creeps in/And all I can do is wait.”
“When I wrote that poem, I was going through a really rough patch, and I didn’t want to end up in the hospital,” said Thresher-Morrison She was in an art therapy group led by STAR Clinician Rachel Gustafson, who had participants read poems about depression and encouraged each client write their own poem. “All the words just flowed right from my head to the paper,” said Thresher-Morrison. “It just came to me.”
Kaiser Martin’s poem, “Men Do Cry,” begins, “They say real men don’t cry, but that’s a lie. Emotions in our hearts, reaching up to the sky.”
Gustafson said that people with mental health issues, making art can play an important role in expression and exploration of the self—both mind and body. “Feelings for many people can be difficult to navigate and understand, but poetry and art-making can help people process and express what they are experiencing,” she said. “When clients were working on their pieces for the NAMI art show, they were all fairly open about their life stories and how the pieces related to themselves. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and clients used the opportunity to create art and express themselves as a part of their voice.”
She said that poetry has been becoming a more popular outlet for clients in the STAR program because it is a way for them to express themselves in a different way. “It has truly been a magical experience watching and supporting clients alongside their creations and learning about their stories in the process,” said Gustafson.
