The Gift of Getting in Synch
With the creative arts de-emphasized in our public schools, where kids' performance on tests is deemed more important than theater and music and movement, there's a real risk that these forms are fading from our culture. Yet nothing can quite replace the sense of connection they bring. "When I grew up, everybody sang," says van der Kolk. "Kids sang, families sang. Part of what singing and other synchronized activities do for people is that you cannot help but giggle and laugh. Synchrony equals joy. You get a sense of pleasure and joy as you try to sing a piece of music together, or try to harmonize. There's a sense of relaxation when you get in synch with other people around you. That, of course, gets destroyed when people get upset and frightened, so you want to reintroduce that capacity that's built in all of us, that synchrony equals pleasure."
While many kids and adults these days prefer to synchronize with computer and phone screens rather than with people, the experience is not the same. "There's no mutuality, and the pleasure in life comes from mutuality, when you and I get each other," says van der Kolk. Beyond their clinical applications, such as helping to rewire the brain after trauma to the head or to the psyche, creative arts therapies offer a different kind of payback. They seek to restore a sense of connection and play, of exploring possibilities and expanding awareness. The very things that make us human.
RESOURCES
Garrison Institute Garrisoninstitute.org
Theresa Haney Theresahaney.com
Izlind Integrative Wellness Center & Institute Izlind.com
Bessel van der Kolk, MD Besselvanderkolk.net
