Art Therapy: The Healing Power of Creativity

Today, we dive into the transformative world of art therapy and its profound impact on mental health, particularly for cancer patients. Stella C shares her personal journey volunteering at Henry Ford Hospital, where she witnessed firsthand how creative expression can be a powerful tool for healing. Through art therapy, individuals find a unique way to process their emotions, reduce stress, and connect with others, all while engaging in the creative process. Stella shares the neuroscience behind why making art can elevate mood and enhance emotional regulation, as well as the importance of this practice in medical environments. Join Stella as she explores how art therapy not only fosters community but also empowers patients to reclaim their sense of freedom and self-expression.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Foreign hello everyone andwelcome to my episode.
I'm your host Stella Chang andI'm so excited to share this with
you.
While this podcast istechnically part of a biology class

(00:22):
project, it feels like so muchmore than just that because today
I get to talk about a topicthat's close to my heart.
Art Therapy I remember aroundthe third time I volunteered at Henry
Ford Hospital with the arttherapist Callie.
In my summer before freshmanyear, I was helping Callie set up
the different art materials,paints, crayons, colored pencils,

(00:45):
and more.
But then behind me the doorswung open.
A woman walks briskly throughthe door carrying multiple things.
She stood in the doorwayinside and said, I I'm really glad
I have this today.
She takes a seat and puts allher stuff down like she was putting
down some baggage weighing onher mind.
Then the art therapistinstructed the group to make an art

(01:06):
piece that expresses how weviewed freedom for a fourth of July
themed activity.
Throughout the hour we talked,laughed and even sat in a not a not
so awkward silence talkingabout our weeks.
All the positives andnegatives supported each other, comfort
each other and share ourstories to each other.
But art therapy is still agrowing field that helps people experience

(01:29):
a sense of relaxation andhealing through creative expression.
I've spent countless hoursobserving, assisting and experiencing
the power of art therapyalongside the art therapists and
cancer patients at Henry Ford Hospital.
Volunteering to help cancerpatients to overcome the range of
complex emotions and andpsychological challenges after receiving

(01:51):
a cancer diagnosis or atreatment plan.
Distress is defined as a widerange of emotional struggles from
sadness and anxiety to deeperissues like depression and spiritual
crisis.
Treating cancer or any lifealtering illness with surgery, radiation
therapy and chemotherapy isvery effective towards physical problems,

(02:12):
but not so much on mental effect.
Mental health includesemotional, psychological and social
well being.
It influences how we think,act, feel and affects our ability
to handle stress, makedecisions and maintain healthy relationships.
And neglecting our mentalhealth can lead to a range of issues

(02:33):
such as anxiety, depressionand burnout, especially in life changing
scenarios.
The psychological distressassociated with receiving a cancer
diagnosis decreases thequality of the patient's life.
The goals of cancer treatmentare to prevent recurrence, achieving
a cure, elongating lifespanand relieving symptoms.

(02:55):
The intense stress that comesfrom curing cancer physically affects
the patient's mental health grade.
Strengthening a patient'sability to cope with their diagnosis
and improve their emotionaland psychological well being is very
important.
Art therapy is a mental healthservice that employs that creative
process of art making toimprove and enhance the physical,

(03:17):
mental and emotional wellbeing of individuals of all ages
and a variety of diagnoseslike chronic illness, physical disability,
mental illness and cancer.
It's based on the belief thatcreative processes involved with
artistic expression and helpspatients resolve emotional conflict,

(03:40):
develop interpersonal skills,manage behavior, reduce stress, increase
self esteem, enhance selfawareness and achieve personal insight.
Art therapy is one of therecommended therapies that is proven
to reduce anxiety and stressfor cancer patients who are struggling
with their mental health, butit's often overlooked than other
therapies.

(04:01):
At first I didn't get it.
I was stressed out about usingnew art supplies and like the ones
I'm not very confident withlike colored pencils or paints and
I was just mainly worriedabout making something good.
But Kali, the art therapistreminded me that it wasn't about
making impressive art, but the process.
The real benefits come fromengaging your brain in activity and

(04:24):
for the last three years, Kaliand I collected mood ratings from
64 cancer patients whoparticipated before and after the
art therapy sessions.
On average, people reported amood of 6.844 before the session
and then 8.453 after.
This meaningful increaseproved that art therapy changed how

(04:47):
people feel, but I wanted tounderstand what was happening neurologically.
Creative arts have been knownto help people express emotions and
reduce stress, butunfortunately the exact neuroscience
behind this hasn't been fullyunderstood until recently.
More studies now show that artmaking activates key brain areas

(05:09):
involved in emotion, rewardand self awareness.
Your brain's reward pathwaysbecome active during art making activities
like doodling and this wasproved by an experiment using an
fnirs, also known asfunctional near infrared Spectroscopy

(05:29):
to measure the blood flow inthe areas of the brain related to
rewards.
While study participantscomplete a variety of art making
projects.
In a study written by FrankOtto of a research experiment At
Drexel University, 26participants wore FNIRS headbands

(05:51):
while they completed threedifferent art activities for three
minutes.
The participants colored in amandala doodle within a circle and
had a free drawing session.
The results showed aconsistent increase in blood flow
to the prefrontal cortex,especially in the dorsolateral prefrontal
cortex, also known as thedlpfc, and the orbitofrontal cortex,

(06:17):
also known as the ofc.
These areas are crucial fordecision making, emotional regulation,
attention and social reasoning.
This heightened activitysuggested that making art stimulates
the brain's reward pathway,likely releasing dopamine and creating
a sense of satisfaction.

(06:37):
A specific singling pathwaythat I research explains how art
making can lead to mentalhealth improvements, but it always
starts with A stimulus.
When someone begins creatingart, whether it's drawing, painting
or sculpting, the sensorysystems in the brain are the first
to respond to the stimulus.
Visual input, such as thecolors and shapes of art materials,

(07:01):
is processed in the primaryvisual cortex at the back of the
brain in the occipital lobe.
At the same time, thesomatosensory cortex in the parietal
lobe interprets tactilesensations from handling materials
like brushes, clay or pencils,while the motor cortex controls hand

(07:23):
and finger movements involvedin creating these sensory and motor
signals are then passed tohigher order brain regions that integrate
body awareness with emotionaland social meaning.
This sensory engagementcreates a kind of bottom up attention,
pulling the brain's focustoward the present experience.

(07:45):
As the creative processcontinues, emotional systems in the
brain become involved.
This begins with limbicsystem, a group of evolutionarily
older brain structures locateddeep within the cerebral hemispheres.
This system includes keyregions such as the amygdala, hippocampus,

(08:08):
hippothalamus and parts of thecigulate cortex.
When a person engages increative activity, the amygdala becomes
active as it scans the contentfor emotional meaning.
It's particularly sensitive tostrong feelings like sadness, fear
or hope, and plays a majorrole in the body's stress response.

(08:32):
Simultaneously, thehippocampus contributes by linking
these emotions to storedpersonal memories, making the experience
feel personally meaningful.
The emotional stimulation canalso trigger activity in the hypothalamus,
which communicates with theautonomic nervous system, sometimes
causing physical symptoms likepsychological changes.

(08:56):
Once the emotional signal isdetected and processed by the limbic
system and it is relayedforward to the ventromedial prefrontal
cortex, AKA vmpfc, a crucialbridge between emotion and cognition.
From here, the prefrontalcortex, especially regions like the
dorsolateral prefrontal cortexand the anterior cigulate cortex,

(09:20):
come aligned to interpret,regulate and make meaning of the
emotional experience.
The DLPFC is involved incognitive control, like deciding
how to respond, maintainingattention, and reappraising emotionally
charged thoughts in a moreadaptive way.
For instance, in art therapy,when someone externalizes an internal

(09:43):
feeling onto paper, the ACChelps detect emotional conflict or
distress and shifts attentiontowards resolution or insight.
Meanwhile, the orbitofrontalcortex integrates emotional meaning
with social context, allowingthe person to reflect on relationships
or personal challengesdepicted in the art.

(10:04):
This transition from rawemotion processing in the limbic
system to consciousinterpretation and regulation, the
pfc, is what enables deeperemotional understanding, reframing
of negative thoughts, andultimately the development of psychological
Resilience.
In essence, art acts as abridge between the emotional brain

(10:27):
and the thinking brain,allowing people to confront, process
and reframe their feelings ina create a safe creative space.
As the artwork takes shape andthe person experiences small achievements
like completing a section ormaking an aesthetically pleasing
decision, the brain's rewardsystem becomes active.

(10:48):
Catherine Wright describes theventral striatum and and nucleus
accumbens becomes active andstarts to release dopamine, a neurotransmitter
that produces feelings ofpleasure and motivation.
This dopaminergic activationencourages continued engagement and
can combat systems ofdepression like low energy or lack

(11:09):
of enjoyment.
As emotional expressiondeepens, another network is triggered,
called the default modenetwork, also known as the dmn.
But what's even morefascinating is how art therapy taps
into the dmn, which is apowerful brain network involved in
a self reflection, memory,imagination and emotional meaning.

(11:30):
Described by Nava Rubin, theDMN includes regions like the medial
prefrontal cortex associatedwith personal identity and self evaluation,
posterior cigulate cortexwhich supports autobiographical memory
and emotional processing,hippocampus which encodes context

(11:54):
and personal experience andthe temporopartial junction which
helps us understand othersemotions and perspectives.
Normally, the DMN deactivateswhen we focus on external tasks.
But in another FMRI study onvisual art, when participants viewed
unfamiliar artworks that theyfound personally moving, the dmn,

(12:19):
especially the mpfc, remainhighly active.
This is unusual because itsuggests that certain visual experiences
can feel so meaningful thatthey bypass the brain's normal task
response system, indirectlytriggers self referential thought,
as if the viewer sees part ofthemselves reflected in the artwork.

(12:41):
And what makes this even moreremarkable is that the DMN and the
task positive networks likethose used in focused problem solving
are usually anti correlated,meaning when one is active, the other
is off.
But in intense art making,both networks co activate.
This rare crossover helps aperson be mentally present while

(13:03):
also tapping into deepinternal emotional states.
It's this unique brain state,a balance between outer focus and
inner meaning, which is likelywhy art therapy is so effective,
even for people dealing withtrauma, anxiety, depression or chronic
illness.
Though the field is stillemerging and under researched, the

(13:23):
neuroscience of art therapy isrevealing just how powerful creativity
can be.
And not just for expression,but for actual healing in the brain.
In the end, this entirepathway, starting from sensory and
emotional engagement to rewardand self reflection, helps reduce
stress, improve mood, enhanceemotional regulation and support

(13:47):
long term mental health.
It lowers stress hormones likecortisol, increases dopamine for
motivation and pleasure andhelps build stronger neural connections
for resilience, selfawareness, and emotional healing.
This is the core of why artmaking can be a powerful therapeutic

(14:07):
tool, even for people whodon't consider themselves as, you
know, artists.
At the end of that fourth ofJuly art therapy session, we had
to share our art pieces.
The woman from before stood upwith a big smile on her face and
started to explain her art piece.
It was full of color andexpression and.

(14:28):
And she told us that when shewas younger, she didn't get much
opportunity to practice art.
She didn't really explain why,but she told us now coming to art
therapy is like her freedom to draw.
And it feels like an upliftingfeeling to be here and experiencing
that freeing feeling with us.
That is what made me love arttherapy so much.

(14:48):
The people, the community, andthe feeling of relief you get afterwards.
I hope the practice of arttherapy is used much more in medical
environments because it's suchan overlooked way of helping patients
feel understood, empowered,and emotionally supported.
From volunteering with the arttherapists to just researching more
deeply about it, Growing myunderstanding made me more passionate

(15:12):
about art therapy.
Observing the effects onpeople's moods or just chatting with
a cancer patient whilecoloring something, I drew something
I love.
And I wouldn't trade theseexperiences for anything.
Thank you for listening.