Healing Art Workshops

“Physicians and nurses are discovering that art, music, dance and poetry can all have profound healing effects on their patients. Art brings to the human spirit a sense of freedom and joy. The spirit freed helps the body heal. Replacing fear with hope and darkness with light is the essence of modern body-mind-spirit medicine.”
Creative Healing, by Michael Samuels, M.D. & Mary Rockwood lane, R.N., M.S.N., Ph.D.

Judith Shaw offers art as a tool for healing in a variety of settings; schools, hospitals, and communities recovering from trauma caused by war and natural disaster. Non-profit institutions are welcome to contract with Judith for one or more of her art workshops designed to help the healing process.

How does art heal? Scientific studies tell us that art heals by changing a person’s physiology; from one of stress to one of deep relaxation.  Art also changes a person attitude; from one of fear to one of creativity and inspiration. Art creates a positive connection to our source.

Neurophysiologists agree that art, prayer, and healing all come from the same source in the body and are deeply connected in feeling and meaning. Art, like prayer and healing, opens our inner world to visions and feelings.  This journey inward to our unique creative voice is deeply healing.

The Journaling Workshop uses a combination of free flow writing and painting to help participants reach the depths of whatever experience they need to process.   Whether dealing with emotional trauma or physical pain, this workshop helps participants release their stress, pain and fear through the power of speaking their own truth in words combined with images.

The Mandala Workshop facilitates both physical and emotional healing through the creation of mandalas.  The Mandala has been used for centuries in Hindu, Buddhist and Native American spiritual practice  as a tool for spiritual growth, positive transformation and creativity.  Mandalas support consciousness-expansion because their symbolic geometries and symmmetry communicate a restorative message.

The Process Painting Workshop facilitates healing through the use of free painting using dreams and feelings as source material. Paint is used in a playful manner, with main emphasis placed on the process of painting and encouragement of creative expression.  Focusing on the process rather than the product helps participants reconnect with their source and facilitates a transformation in their outlook on life and themselves.