Photograph courtesy alliance healthcare services
The Japanese art of kentsugi holds much meaning for Ashley Neal. The licensed professional counselor recently opened her own practice in Clark Tower, Mended Therapy, with seven years’ experience helping mend broken hearts and minds.
“Kentsugi” translates to “golden joinery.” When pottery or other objects fracture, practitioners of kintsugi repair and reinvent those objects, which often have deep, sentimental meaning for their owners. Artists do put the pieces back together, but they don’t try to hide the repair work. Instead, they mix gold into the adhesive, to draw attention to the mended cracks, now stronger than ever. It’s a way of acknowledging and even embracing life’s unpredictable challenges. The cracks and chips make the pottery more valuable, because they represent troubles survived, and the strength of overcoming.
“It is a little bit of overlap with something that I have done with clients,” says Neal, “which is taking a piece of pottery, breaking it, and then putting it back together.”
photograph courtesy ashley neal
Ashley Neal, LPC-MHSP
Neal was inspired to pursue a career in mental health by her childhood pediatrician, who had a welcoming and caring bedside manner. “They spent a lot of time actually getting to know me,” she recalls. I was at the doctor a lot, but she listened to what was actually going on with me. I could see the care that she had for me, so that was a big part of it. Also, I guess I have what you call a ‘therapist face,’ where people sometimes just go up to me and tell me about their whole life.”
She has seen many clients in Memphis who have had their worlds shattered. “A lot of people in this community, specifically kids, have experienced trauma in various ways. That could be community-based, that could be things within their school, or that can be within their home,” says Neal. “A lot of mood disorders are seen through behavioral issues. Just because someone has behavioral issues doesn’t mean it’s just a behavioral problem. It could actually be depression that someone is experiencing, but you see it through more of like the anger side. For people 18 and under, you can see anger and that is a part of the depression. It’s a symptom as well, so it’s not just like a down mood.”
Neal feels called to help people with their mental health. But she’s also inspired by fashion, and she sees a strong connection between the two pursuits.. “I know they sound like very separate things, but in a way, they can come together, like this idea of mending as a metaphor for ourselves. I’ve been ripped and torn and cut up. What happens when a piece of clothing has been ripped and torn and cut up? We can just not use it anymore. Or we can mend it and use that mended piece and be able to still wear it and see it in all of its beauty.”
Neal has helped clients mend old clothes as a meditative practice for years. Next spring, as part of her new practice, she will expand mending into group therapy. “It’s a way of using mindfulness and being present in the moment with the piece that we’re mending,” she says, “and being able to process some things that we feel like need to be mended within our own lives.”
The fashionable therapy is one form of a larger principal — using art and creativity as both an outlet and a learning tool to improve mental health. “I have used creative tools throughout my entire time as a therapist,” she says. “Working with kids, you kind of have to. I’ve seen it be very helpful. I’ve worked with youth who struggle with just expressing themselves in any way. Maybe they want to be in therapy, but they really don’t know how to talk about anything. So we may start with just some artistic interventions, like drawing our feelings.”
”One of the groups that they enjoy most is art, because art helps them when they’re having a situation
or some kind of crisis. They can put their feelings and emotions in the paintings.” — Marta Hernandez
At Alliance Healthcare Services’ Turning Point Peer Support Center on Summer Avenue, recovery specialist Marta Hernandez holds group meetings regularly that use creative pursuits for mental health benefits. “We do arts and crafts,” says Hernandez. “We do educational groups like the Wellness Recovery Action Plan, for people to learn how to notice when they are having a crisis, and also include their family members and doctors if they want to. We also have exercise and some support groups for depression, anxiety, etcetera. But one of the groups that they enjoy most is art, because art helps them when they’re having a situation or some kind of crisis. They can put their feelings and emotions in the paintings.”
Hernandez has seen many clients benefit from channeling their feelings into creative pursuits. “I believe that when they create something on their own, it gives them encouragement,” she says. “So if you’re feeling depressed, instead of focusing on your thoughts and what you’re feeling, you put that energy into the piece of art. Just seeing the colors, just touching the clay helps them. There is something going on in the mind when we do that.”
“Art can be used as an intervention in the therapeutic setting, not only as a coping skill, but also as a way to communicate and to help a client process,” says Sandra L. Brazzell, addiction services program coordinator for Alliance Healthcare Services. “For those who struggle with using language to explore their challenges and concerns, art can feel safer than trying to find the words that often elude them. Art is neither right nor wrong — it just is. It can provide a safe space to allow an individual to explore self-reflection and self-acceptance. It can promote self-esteem and emotional regulation, as it allows one to process trauma, grief, and complex emotions using the creative side of the brain.”
Brazzell says creative activities can serve as an outlet for anxiety, stress, depression, trauma responses and/or managing triggers to use drugs or alcohol. “There are several cognitive and brain health benefits of art, including improved neural plasticity, as well as improved focus, attention span, and memory. When done in a group therapy setting, art and creative activities can promote social and communication skills, which can positively impact interpersonal skills in general.”
Encouraging creativity goes hand in hand with more traditional therapies. “I use CBT, which is cognitive behavioral health therapy, and ACT, which is acceptance commitment therapy,” says Neal. “I’m helping people identify thoughts that are going on in their lives that are impacting their feelings and helping them express it in an artistic way, if they struggle with talking about it. So instead of just identifying ‘Oh, this is a cognitive distortion. This is an unhelpful thought that I have,’ we will act out some things in an artistic way.”
Hernandez has seen the results with her own clients. “Right now, we have a pottery class on Saturdays. One of the clients had a situation where she didn’t like the clay that she made. It was all crooked. I was like, ‘You have to break it down and build it again.’ She was mad at the beginning, but then she started building again. And when she saw the final piece, she was like, ‘Wow, I’m glad I did it again, because now I like what I did.’ And so with that came a learning experience: Sometimes in life, you have to build again.”
