Wonder-working Power
Kristin Vander Giessen-Reitsma, Research and Program Coordinator for Student Activities at Calvin College
catapult
Volume 7, No. 5

The healing power of art is no new revelation. Throughout history, human beings have created and shared art even in the most desperate circumstances out of an intuitive sense that creativity sustains us in some way. This intuition bubbles up in both spontaneous and organized ways, and in today’s North American culture, we even stake one of our highest measures of value, the dollar, in art’s healing power through education and experience. Unfortunately, while programs for art therapy that use drawing, painting, acting and music to foster emotional and physical healing are popping up at universities across the country, knowledge of the healing power of art doesn’t seem to have trickled down to the thousands of health clinics where most of us receive primary care.

If Mavis Staples’ music was in some way a healing experience for me, it’s a stark contrast to my last visit to the doctor. 

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