♪♪ ♪♪ Diane Tonkyn: Historically there has been a stigma related to mental health when really it is something basic to all of us.

♪♪ Diane Tonkyn: Art therapy is a mental health profession and it combines psychological theory and art and art-making.

♪♪ Diane Tonkyn: There has been a lot of work in the area of neuroscience and the brain and trauma.

They found that when someone goes through a traumatic experience that that part of the brain that has language and narrative and sequential words kind of shuts down and it has to do with being in survival mode.

So when you ask someone to talk about that experience it is often very difficult and there isn't the words there because it was the experience, the multi-sensory experience.

So the art you can have them express it visually and start to talk about what is on the paper and that is putting a narrative then and they are better able to access that and then to access to the emotions that go with it.

♪♪ ♪♪ Diane Tonkyn: I'm just going to share briefly something that I do when I'm feeling a little stressed or I need to release a little energy and it's something you can do as well, which is to draw a mandala, which is a Sanskrit word for sacred circle.

And it is basically just using lines, shape and color and filling in your feelings with that.

♪♪ Diane Tonkyn: It sort of releases energy and it is also pleasurable and fun and helps me relax and calm.

And the idea is starting in the middle and working out can be sort of centering too.

♪♪ Diane Tonkyn: I have worked with teenagers a lot.

They're not excited about talking to a therapist usually.

And so doing the art is another way to connect with them and lower their anxiety and their defenses and help them communicate in a way that may be a little more relaxed.

(nature sounds) Diane Tonkyn: I met Megan as a teenager who had a lot of difficult feelings.

And we did art therapy together I think for three years.

I feel she learned a lot of really good coping skills for the stressors that she was experiencing and art became one of the major things that helped her with her coping to the point where now as an adult she is an artist.

She is a painter primarily.

♪♪ Megan Bishop: Traditional therapy didn't really click with me.

I didn't like talking about a lot of things, but I always loved to draw.

I started learning different techniques from Diane.

I started using my sketchbook like a diary.

It made me realize I love to draw, I was good at drawing, I had a passion for it and that it was my voice.

♪♪ Megan Bishop: My art career now is I do a lot of commissions and murals.

I teach at Oaknoll.

I teach my residents how to draw and paint.

We have a little session, living proof kind of working with cancer survivors and their families doing art and I've been lucky, I don't know, it's a lot of commission, word-of-mouth and Facebook, Instagram, Etsy.

♪♪ Megan Bishop: Art kind of takes you, it takes all the noise away when you draw or paint or create, it just kind of puts you a different head space and you can kind of zero in on one thing rather than trying to worry about a bunch of them all at once.

♪♪ Megan Bishop: The beautiful thing about art is that you make something that wasn't there before and that it is timeless, it doesn't have any boundaries and it is freedom.

You don't have to create a masterpiece to be an artist or put that pressure on yourself.

We already put a lot of pressures on ourselves without having to do that.

♪♪ Megan Bishop: The fearless words of Bob Ross, "there's no mistakes, just happy accidents".

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