By Claire DuMont
Staff Writer
Am I enough? Am I doing enough? The latest event at the El Segundo Museum of Art, or ESMOA, “You Are Enough,” aimed to answer these questions and have a meaningful night of discussions on perception and self-image.
On Oct. 28, ESMOA hosted the “You Are Enough” event for men and women to overcome anxiety, depression and overall self-worth using art. The event was hosted by the Education Specialist at ESMOA, Chelsea Hogan, and clinical psychologist, Dr. Kate Cummins who specializes in helping women and family issues.
“When people ask me what I do for a living or who my patients are, I don’t like to say I specialize in one thing or type of person, that’s too broad and technical. I like to say that I specialize in human beings,” Cummins said.
When Cummins approached Hogan six months before, her goal for the event was to remove the negative connotation with mental health issues. She decided that having a party centered around mental health and women’s issues would help her achieve this.
“I’m exhausted by the stigma that mental health holds,” Cummins said, “I figured, why not throw a party? With this event, I wanted to bring people together and show that it doesn’t hold the heaviness that they believe.”
Cummins also incorporated art therapy during the event, which brings together art projects with typical therapy sessions. The patients’ creations are a way to help psychologists understand the patient’s feelings, and the process is meant to be a therapeutic and calming experience for the patient.
“Art therapy is a valuable process that is easy to see reflected in the patients,” neuropsychologist and previous student of Cummins, Rachel Sills said. “It works when patients can’t function to express themselves verbally and instead do it through art.”
To further the lesson on different perspectives of self-image and daily life, one hour of the event was spent viewing the pieces in Experience, or exhibit 19, at the museum entitled TOUCH. Hogan led the group in discussions about the meaning of each piece.
“I try to give people meaningful experiences through works of art,” said Hogan, “This is one of my favorite experiences that we’ve had at ESMOA.”
Attendees participated in an activity by Dr. Cummins on self image. They took a photo of themselves, stared at it for 120 seconds and wrote about the experience. Cummins then led them in a debrief, to share what they wrote and discuss its meaning and the way they studied the art.
“We were try to show that we are supposed to be our best friends, why are we looking at the negative aspects? When did this negative perception start?” Cummins said.
“You Are Enough” combined art with psychology to remove the stigma from mental illness and help attendees learn about their own self-image and perception. Attendees were meant to learn that art is evaluated and analyzed similarly to how one understands themselves and the world around them.
“Am I enough? Am I doing enough? The world fills us with these horrible things and as we start to believe the lies, it is important to maintain a good self-image and look at the positive aspects, which was the point of the exhibit.” Cummins said.
Art and toy therapy also work well and are most effective with children and young adults. typically can’t describe how they’re feeling in a way for the therapist can understand, thus the art projects. The psychologist can take their product and use it to comprehend their feelings.
“I’ve seen psychologists ask children to pick toys out to play with and what they pick can reveal something about how they are feeling,” Sarah K. Rimack, a psychologist that frequently uses art and toy therapy said.
Leave a Reply