Many of Brighton Wellness Festival’s panel talks explored ways we can change the conversation around wellness. In The Art of Healing: How Does Therapeutic Creativity Work?, the panel visited the well-trodden path of art as therapy, but with some new takes on the subject.

 

The host was Richard Watkins, playwright and theatre producer. He was joined by Emma Greenland, a specialist in educational acoustics; Catherine Black, art therapist; Hema Patel, RTT hypnotherapist and coach; and Becky Wixon, founder of Flux, deep listening experiences.

 

Rich introduced the topic by defining art therapy as Medicine for the Soul: “helping us to reach parts of ourselves that words and logic can’t touch” and a means to “transform pain into connection.”

Many of the panel spoke of the journeys they’ve been on to find their creativity and what creativity means to them.

 

Emma said she struggled with music in the past, finding it too measured: “we have lost touch with the music itself.” She finally reconnected with it through a gong practitioner friend, and music and sound are now Emma’s meditation. Becky also recalled how creativity has always been her place of calm. She first picked up a guitar aged 7, and was ‘hooked.’ Even at that young age, Becky says she saw how music had the power to create change.

 

Hema’s road to where she is now has taken on more diversions and pitstops along the way than most. From coming up against sleazy record managers as a teenager in a band, she rebelled by going into management consultancy, followed by a stint teaching and then career coaching. Hema says she “didn’t see herself as a creative person.” Then in 2017, her cousin took his own life and Hema “knew then I needed to do more to help others.” She signed up to a hypnotherapy course during lockdown, and started writing poems and doing open mic sessions. “I was creative again. I’ve learnt that we are all creative, we just don’t give ourselves that label. If you’re speaking up and sharing views, that’s creativity.”

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Always passionate about history, Catherine became fascinated with ancient ritual ceremonies and figurative sculpture. For her the combination of history and creativity was “the medicine I needed.”

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But we don’t all think of ourselves as necessarily creative. However, Rich believes that: “We are all creations, therefore all creative. That’s how I live my life… We talk about the bliss from creativity. But how can we ensure being creative remains accessible and practical to all people?”

 

Becky and Emma believe that the process is more important than the end product. “When we have access to creativity it's profound and healing. It can be destroyed by the idea that ‘I’m not creative,’” says Becky.

 

Emma added that we need to: “move away from mastery. We see our idols perform and we think we need to be there to get that creativeness.”

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Catherine took us right back to basics: “[Creativity] takes one mark on a piece of paper. Moving a stone. Noticing a weed coming through the cracks.” 

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But, this doesn’t sit comfortably for everyone, said Rich. “[There’s] so much to be sad about in the world, how dare we find joy when that’s going on?”

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And for Catherine too: “Creativity feels like a luxury, when experiencing so much pain in the world, it feels edgy.”

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Festival founder, Natasha Jackson, who was in the audience was asked for her thoughts on this. She comes to it with the idea that creativity is the route to healing. “Creating comes from a place of pain, many of us in the holistic space feel that. Healing and helping and giving back is creative. We try to avoid places of pain, but that’s when the most beautiful things can happen.”

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Rich then invited the panel to talk about whether science has a place in their work. Emma, who offers immersive sound bath therapy, says she came to music in the first place because of its liberating power from the need to know and experience more.  

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“There are people out there who haven’t done a sound bath before and treat it with suspicion. They’re more interested in the outcome, why it’s important to make it accessible. Why I made it a tactile experience, immersive, to pay attention to your body and connect mind and body in the space. I’m enjoying releasing myself from the evidence. Sometimes we just need to trust in the process.”

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Becky understands the desire of many for scientific proof, but says that whilst sound therapy is new, sound has been used in healing for thousands of years. For her, “if it feels good, then that’s enough.”

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“I echo that,” says Rich. “So much of being an actor is intuition. You don’t need to know why you laugh or cry in the theatre. I feel like I need to justify it with evidence but with art you just know.” 

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It was time to put words into action, as Catherine announced that the panel and audience were going to get their creative juices flowing together.

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Each panellist magically produced a coloured ball of string which they passed around the audience. The idea was to weave it around and between us, taking part in creating communal art together. Pretty soon we were all tangled up and laughing together at the fun ridiculousness of it!

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As Catherine concluded: “Helping hands. This is how we can change the world in my opinion! Not just one person getting out of a mess by themself.”

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