How Our Mental Wellness and Mental Health Are Affected by Creativity

"A lot of times when we're working on our mental health, being that so much of it is cognitive, we think we have to speak things through and that's the only way...

“But creativity is the conduit for another way of communication."

This is a brief excerpt from The Mental Wellness Practice Podcast episode 027: How Your Creativity Affects Your Mental Health with Dr. LA Stretch.

In the episode, Dr. Shainna Ali talks with Dr. LoriAnn 'LA' Stretch, about the link between creativity and mental wellness.

Dr. Stretch is the President and conference co-chair for the Association for Creativity in Counseling.

More info on her LinkedIn page.

Dr. Ali is a mental health counselor, educator, and host of the Mental Wellness Practice Podcast.

One of her books: Designing Healthy Boundaries by Shainna Ali PhD.

Her site: shainnaali.com

Dr Ali is a speaker at the Healing Toxic Relationships Super Conference Nov. 2023 on the topic "How to Repair Your Self Image and Self Love."

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See episodes and links to Apple Podcasts, Spotify and more, on the main podcast page at creativemindaudio.buzzsprout.com

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This very broad topic of mental/emotional health and creative people is of deep personal interest, and over the years I have created a number of articles, videos [see my playlist Emotional Health with 240+ titles] and more.

Here are two related articles, followed by podcast episodes:

Being Creative Can Be Healing And A Refuge

Actor Kristin Bauer portrayed the deliciously imperious and sarcastic vampire Pam on the HBO series “True Blood.”

In addition to acting, she has been drawing and painting since around age twelve.

(Photo: Kristin Bauer van Straten with her portrait of 'True Blood' castmate Stephen Moyer; Bauer as vampire Pam.)

Bauer says one of the inspirations for her art is a “need to unwind and sort of recuperate and do something because acting is this huge group production...But painting is just ME.

“It’s just the polar opposite and somehow it balances the craziness of acting.”

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Mental Health and Creative People – selected articles.

“The work talks about what people don’t talk about – what people are afraid to say.”

Clara Lieu, a visual artist and professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, is referring to her projects, especially “Falling” – a series of fifty self-portrait drawings that visually represent her personal experience with depression and anxiety.

Lieu said about her work: “Being diagnosed and treated just a few years ago… It was startling to see myself clearly for the first time, free from the disease.

“Only at that point did I have the emotional distance that allowed me to to be in position to address this subject artistically.

“I knew at that point that I felt an uncontrollable drive and compulsion to make the work.”

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Podcast episodes:

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