Art Therapy

By Jenny Johnston


    A freshman girl in high school is cleaning her room and listening to music. The song ‘With Hope’ starts playing and the girl suddenly breaks into a meltdown, sits in the corner and hysterically cries. She has just lost both grandparents.
    Now, almost eight years later, this girl is smiling from ear to ear, running her fingers through her flaming red hair and sporting a bright purple blouse, tan moccasins and a big, silver peace sign necklace. She has discovered what she thinks is  her life purpose of becoming an art therapist.
    Danielle Green, a Park University sophomore, is majoring in psychology with a minor in art.
She wants to turn her degree into art therapy by studying the psychology of humans and integrating art into it to help people through a bereavement period.
    “It opens up such a world of opportunities,” says Green. “It is so fascinating studying the human mind and how coping with things worked for me. What better way to teach them through art and helping people through the bereavement process?”
    For Green, her turning point came at a tough age. Between her 8th and 9th grade years Green lost both of her grandparents.
    “I was very close to my grandparents, just like I am with my parents,” says Green. “They only lived five blocks away. I was also an only child so it was always the five of us together a lot of the time.”
    First, her grandfather passed away from lung cancer.
    “I was actually named after my grandfather,” says Green. “I was very close to him. He was really affectionate, caring and supportive of me. He is the reason I am into art. He loved to sketch and we would always sit on the floor and draw and talk. Gosh, we would also cut out models and do tracing. We would even get out the Crayola water colors and make a huge mess!”
    Green’s grandmother soon passed away after her grandfather’s death.
    “I know there isn’t really any scientific reason for this, but I truly believe she passed away from a broken heart,” says Green. “She was a very strong woman, kind of like Rosie the Riveter. She was so beautiful, classy and elegant. She was my pillar of strength…a very strong woman who taught me so much; you didn’t get in her way! She was a ballsy broad!”
    Losing both her grandparents so close together was rough time for Green.
    “I was very angry with God,” says Green. “I was pretty much angry at anything and everything. I felt like I had the right to be.”
    On top of her grief, it was also a tough time in her life making that transformation into high school and being stressed with the normal, early teenage struggles.  
    “It was a traumatic experience,” says Green. “I felt very lost, like I didn’t know what I was doing. Everything in my life was mixed up. I was even confused about my faith; I was very angry at the world.”
    When Green started her freshman year at Truman High School she became involved with debate, theatre and visual arts.
    During this time, she acquired her first manual camera: a Pentax K1000. She began taking hundreds of pictures and found it as a cure for her grief. She also indulged in hands-on artistic projects which helped her release her emotions.
    “I surrendered my eyes and myself through the lens,” says Green. “Taking pictures, painting, sculpting was all me coping and getting through it.”
    Art was also something Green and her grandparents shared. She has many fond, childhood memories of their fun, artistic times.
    “One of my earliest memories is of me and my grandpa on a morning where my grandma had to go to the beauty shop,” says Green. “ I was in my high chair which I was almost too big for and we made all sorts of animals out of play dough then let them dry.”
    Letting out her emotions, anger and feelings into forms of art helped Green’s emotional and mental stability. She made the decision to help other people like her, with similar experiences. She wanted people to feel what she felt and have an outlet for their troubles, and thought art therapy was the best way.
    “I really want to help people like me who have gone through the same thing I did, but I also don’t want to limit myself to just that,” says Green. “I want to reach out to all ages, like help the elderly and their families who have a terminal illness, women and young teenage victims of sexual abuse, and children who have been diagnosed with terminal cancer. I want to help people going through any sort of tragic or traumatic experience…not just death.”
    Green wants to capture the emotions and feelings by using art therapy as an emotional release. It has worked well for her and people she has worked with.
    “It is about using passion to glorify something you lost,” says Green. “It is not just about letting out, but letting in these feelings and allowing your mind to go where it needs to go.”
    Green has several tools and techniques which helped her and what she wants others to experience as well.
   “Brush strokes, the clicking of a camera, the smell of the chemicals in the dark room…it is all very soothing and relaxing for me,” says Green. “It brings back good memories.”
    Green used multimedia outlets and fun hands-on activities to calm her and physically express herself. Painting canvases, ceramics and pottery are some of the things Green wants to share with other people so it can help them.
    Every event in her life after her loss fell in place and she began putting her dreams in action.
She was already volunteering for hospice as a caretaker, but left after her loss. She volunteered at the Riverside Nursing Home helping with Alzheimer’s couples.
    Green also volunteered for the Kansas School for the Blind. She worked with 10 kids in an after school art program and helped the blind and autistic kids create pottery wheels and bean art.
    She was also an Art Director for a Girl Scout Camp and is currently a grant writer for the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.
    When Green graduates from Park, she is planning to go to graduate school at either Emporia State or Avila and join their art therapy programs. After that she would like to find a place where she can settle down and fulfill her dream of helping others…possibly, Children’s Mercy Hospital.
    “They have what is called a Child Life Specialist who helps kids with fun art projects to distract them and take their mind off their worries and struggles,” says Green. “It gives my life purpose. If I can help them, it is just as therapeutic to me as to them.”
    Green doesn’t just hope for this dream to help others, she says she knows it will happen.
    Her dream fits into her happy, easy-going “hippie” personality. She loves to play the guitar and sing. She loves all sorts of music but mainly the old stuff - Motown, 60’s music. She is also big into theatre and loves “Les Miserables” and “Wicked.”
    Green says she enjoys spending time with her family and writing random things. She still wears her grandma’s ring on her finger.
    Currently, Green is working on a huge canvas multi-media project of her grandparents. She is going to include the lyrics to their favorite songs and tons of pictures of them, and some objects they cherished like her grandpa's rosary.
    “Grieving is great…everyone needs it,” says Green. “Life has to go on and eventually I know I will see them again.”