ARTS IN RECOVERY
An Active Path to Recovery
Art in its many forms provides people with an anchor, a point around which people can weave the strands that make up for personhood, something beyond the superficial 'enhancing good self-esteem’, something essential that gives them hope. Without hope negativity wins the battle, and art is on the positive side. Wander de C. Braga, M.D.
An inclusive arts mentoring program can transform the recovery journey by providing new, positive opportunities - not only for personal expression in new "languages", but also for clients to experience themselves, their personhood, apart from their challenges - out in the community. This is new ground for healing - a natural normalization of mental health consumers.
Want to learn more about the arts in recovery, education, life? Here are a couple of samples of what you'll find in Bill Rossi's Venturing Together: Empowering Students to Succeed:
"Music can alleviate suffering through truthful yet graceful expression, can open up the person to feel alive and relevant as a human being, can stimulate insight and understanding of one's individual potential towards life's higher purpose, and can bring people together for a higher degree of communal support, all of which can help people rise above their circumstances...
There is healing in an expression that contains deep personal truth voiced in a way that is sincere, trusting, and communally understood."
Ready to Start Your Own Program?
Merge Can Help You Develop An Active Path to Recovery.
STEP ONE: Develop a comprehensive arts mentoring program with the Merge System for Creative Education
(1) Venturing Together – provides the philosophy and specific skills needed to implement Rossi’s effective arts mentoring approach;
(2) Risks Worth Taking - the step-by-step toolkit for developing and managing an inclusive program;
(3) Play by Heart and Draw on Experience – curriculum examples that demonstrate how to effectively implement any good arts curriculum within a mentoring context;
(4) SETS: Student Evaluation & Tracking System – easily manage and evaluate your program for increased effectiveness and funding.
(5) Consultation - Add expert consultation with Bill Rossi.
STEP TWO: Provide fine arts instruction and frequent performance events for your community
(1) Engage consumers, develop skills, and enhance social interaction by offering a mix of weekly arts instruction (individual, small group, and ensemble instruction);
(2) Promote community inclusion with regular high-quality clubhouse or coffee house events.
The Pennsylvania OMHSAS Vision - which is now echoed in many states in the US - can be promoted through implementation of a Merge program:
Every individual served by the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Service system will have the opportunity for growth, recovery and inclusion in their community.
Endorsements:
Venturing Together author Bill Rossi developed and managed arts mentoring programs for almost two decades in Seattle, WA, Albany, NY, and Chester County, PA in such diverse locations as city art museums, homeless shelters, therapeutic treatment facilities, peer support centers, and after school programs. The Rossi Approach has been recognized for excellence by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the Gates Foundation, Paul Allen Foundation and many others.
This experience and success established the Rossi Approach as a best practice for challenged youth and adults.
The Rossi Approach:
For the creative learner, life is an ever-unfolding and interrelated process that leads to a greater understanding and experience of being human. The Rossi approach stimulates, develops and nurtures this process in teachers and students alike.
Three of the most important characteristics of a successful human being are a well developed sense of ethics, the ability to think independently, and the desire to deeply understand oneself.
Rossi’s methods were designed to develop these characteristics by improving skills, cultural awareness, character, and psychological health. The integration of these elements creates the unique gestalt that lies at the heart of the approach.
The Rossi method is founded on the following understandings:
- good teachers teach how, not what, to think
- teachers should model their creative and life experience
- teachers must be in a personal state of inquiry and creativity in order to transfer that state
- creating a mutual learning relationship through mentoring is a very effective way to teach
- strengths-based education, responsive to the student’s learning style, provides a very effective way to learn.
This method stimulates teachers’ creativity so you are able to teach from the same perspective from which you want your students to learn. As a driving force in the creative process, teachers become mentors and guides, providing students with supportive relationships that build trust and a sense of belonging.
This approach also helps teachers and students jointly discover the areas of student strength, thus ensuring the early successes that promote further creativity and motivate further study. Inspired by progress and guided by mentors, students develop their abilities and learn to apply these to other life areas.
Here's an Example of the Approach in Action:
Imagine a student and teacher together at the piano. The teacher is 100% present with the student, concentrating fully on the music and sensitive to where the student is at that moment.
A teacher working with this orientation is so involved that he almost hears the music the same way the student hears it. He’s listening, tapping, placing his hands at the keyboard next to the students’ to express an articulation or a rhythm, or a phrase for the student to respond to, sometimes playing the exact phrase or an accompanying part.
The student begins to move with him, and for some time they're moving and playing together. It's at that moment that real learning begins. Not from the teacher showing, explaining, or outlining the theory involved, but from the experience of doing together. The student has jumped into learning the next step, and her awareness has been expanded in such a way that she will not only grasp the skill of playing but also the musical principle involved.
At this point the teacher can teach the principle (or theory) involved by relating it directly to the where the student is, giving the student a very meaningful and practical way of “getting it”. What's needed for that moment to happen is a high degree of sensitivity on the teacher’s part. It also requires that the teacher jump in and "get wet" with the student, not stay in the safe role of teacher.
When the teacher participates in this way he actually re-experiences the music and re-experiences the principles of the music, so he’s able to transfer that experience with a freshness and newness that are exciting for the student. This vulnerability and healthy, creative expression allows for a feeling of positive relationship that many students so badly need .
