Counsellor uses art and music to ease trauma
After a certain age, many people stop making art or playing a musical instrument because they think it's only for professionals.
Being told you don't measure up to some arbitrary standard as a youngster can translate into abandoning traditional creative work as an adult. But counsellor Iven Simonetti says among people who have suffered trauma, there's potential in using music, play and art to create “positive mental health and self-care.”
He calls what he does TherARTy, a word he's coined to describe his version of art therapy. With clients, he starts by asking whether she or he ever enjoyed drawing or playing a musical instrument.
“I stay on the track of curiosity rather than professionalism,” said Simonetti, who also makes and sells his own art.
Simonetti's work as a counsellor using art and music is being celebrated April 15 on World Art Day, a day set aside every year by UNESCO to celebrate art around the world.
When one of Simonetti's clients responds by saying, “Oh, I'm no good at that,” Simonetti probes a bit deeper. He knows that those kinds of attitudes can be linked to experiences where the fun of playing music or making art is trained out of children.
“The concept of art as healing is that art uses a different kind of hemisphere in the brain,” Simonetti said.
“In order to access painful memories, you have to get out of the logical mind. Art helps to release those things and gives you insights about why you might be scared of dogs, but you've forgotten that you were bitten as a kid.”
Simonetti might ask the client to draw with a non-dominant hand — with their left, for example, if they always favour the right — or to play a musical instrument blindfolded. By giving their rational mind a rest for a while, it can lead to accessing feelings and experiences that are part of the person's trauma.
As the counsellor, Simonetti takes his cues from what he sees or hears.
“I look at the symbolism,” he said. “Is there a strong line? Do the lines look busy? Or are they calm? What's important is that I don't put my spiel on it but ask: `What's happening when you do this?'
“That's how we find out what's underneath. `What challenge do you have strumming those strings, drawing those stick figures? What's coming up for you?' And, bang, you're back at their childhood.”
Simonetti started out as an artist and animator. After a trip to Iquitos, the Peruvian Amazon city that is one of the centres for ayahuasca, the potent psychoactive brew used as medicine among Indigenous people, he discovered he needed to match his interest in art with a childhood dream of helping people.
He recently attended the entrepreneurship program at Employ to Empower, which focuses on helping people living or working in the Downtown Eastside. Simonetti said the program has helped him to improve the business side of his counselling practice.
On Sundays, he works at Onsite, the detox centre above Insite at Main and Hastings streets. He uses his skills to create animated shorts with Mother Earth as the main character to foster “more environmentally conscious earthlings.”
“We're in front of our devices way too long, way too often, way too many hours,” Simonetti said. “I try to always reconnect my clients with nature.”
World Art Day is an initiative originally started by the International Association of Art based in Paris. It's held on April 15 every year to honour the birth of Leonardo da Vinci, the renowned Italian artist who lived from 1452 to 1519 during the Renaissance.