{"id":870,"date":"2013-03-05T03:30:25","date_gmt":"2013-03-05T03:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandaretreats.com\/blog\/?p=870"},"modified":"2013-04-05T11:24:13","modified_gmt":"2013-04-05T11:24:13","slug":"art-therapy-or-army-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandaretreats.com\/blog\/archives\/870","title":{"rendered":"Art Therapy or Army Therapy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"84cf944e-19c9-4283-afaa-9d51936882cc\"<\/a>Art therapy is one of the treatments<\/a> to armed forces veterans with conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety.\u00a0 Drawing, sculpting and painting are helping patients manage their symptoms with great success.<\/p>\n

When a trauma happens, the person will react to get through the experience, but it leaves the trauma unprocessed. A person might then get a sensory memory like a sound, or sight, or smell, that is reminiscent of the trauma and they re-experience it happening again.<\/p>\n

\u2018Blank mind\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n

Art therapy aims to help people express themselves unconsciously and process the meaning afterwards. Group sessions typically begin with the therapist giving a one or two word brief to inspire creativity before veterans are given a selection of materials for painting, modelling or writing.\u00a0 After 45 minutes of quick work, the group then get together to talk about and describe what they\u2019ve just created.<\/p>\n

After their sessions, the veterans are encouraged to develop their initial artwork into fuller, finished pieces to further interpret and explore their feelings.<\/p>\n

Invisible wounds:<\/b><\/p>\n

A<\/b>lthough many of the veterans who try the therapy may never have had any interest in art before, there are some servicemen who actively pursue the craft and use it to reflect their experiences.<\/p>\n

The Army Arts Society, set up by war artist Linda Kitson after the Falklands War, promotes and supports arts and crafts within the British Army \u2013 working with serving military, those who have retired and even their dependants.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2018Angry and frustrated\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n

Art has been invaluable for 32-year-old Norfolk serviceman, Nick Hendry. Having joined the army when he was 16, he has been posted in countries including Germany, Kosovo and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

After qualifying as a diving supervisor for his regiment\u2019s airborne unit in Portsmouth, he was attacked and left with serious head injuries.\u00a0 In a coma for almost a month, he spent a lengthy time in a rehabilitation unit, suffered from hallucinations and memory loss.<\/p>\n

It was while looking through regiment photos that Nick thought he would try his hand at painting. A colleague\u2019s wife suggested he join the Army Arts Society, when he gained a new lease of life.<\/p>\n

With lack of self-confidence, he spent about 50 to 70 hours on a picture.\u00a0 The society encouraged Nick to enter its Serving War Artist of the Year competition \u2013 which he went on to win for his water colour, Deliberation.\u00a0 Nick struggled trying to justify everything, but as soon as he got hold of a paintbrush it took\u00a0 his \u00a0mind off some really bad thoughts and focused his mind on one thing.”<\/p>\n

Richard Kidgell agrees it\u2019s a good idea to give soldiers the opportunity to process what they are experiencing on a tour of duty. Potentially, it can allow the military to spot the symptoms of PTSD early.\u00a0 For the minority, who will grasp the idea, the benefits for catching those people at an early stage and giving them a chance to vent will be brilliant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Art therapy is one of the treatments to armed forces veterans with conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety.\u00a0 Drawing, sculpting and painting are helping patients manage their symptoms with great success. When a trauma happens, the person will react to get through the experience, but it leaves the trauma unprocessed. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[161,54],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandaretreats.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandaretreats.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandaretreats.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandaretreats.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandaretreats.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sandaretreats.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandaretreats.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandaretreats.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandaretreats.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}