Psychotherapy

• I asked myself this question during my creative writing PhD, where my focus was on writing a collection of poems in response to modern and contemporary art.
• I made use of books and postcard reproductions of artworks and also looked online, using resources such as Google Images and virtual gallery tours.
• And I reflected on how it’s possible to nurture a love of art and creativity despite such feelings of marginalisation.

• Is there something in the obscurity or formlessness that chimes with something buried in our psyche?
• Maybe creative writing – and particularly writing that makes use of artworks – can perform this function, and even work as a precursor or complement to psychotherapy.
• So, here are three steps I have found to be effective when using an artwork as a prompt to “write therapeutically”.

1. Choose your artwork

• People often say a piece of art “resonates” or “speaks” to them.
• See if you can allow an image to find you in this way.
• It doesn’t need to be an artwork in a museum or gallery – any image you feel a connection with is a good choice.

2. Embrace ‘slow looking’

• As you do so, analyse the image and try to notice as much as possible.
• This kind of attention involves looking around the entire artwork, without assuming that some parts are more important than others.
• Instead, try to treat everything as though it’s of equal significance (at least initially).

3. Try uninhibited writing

• Follow your slow looking exercise with some uninhibited and uncensored writing.
• As you work, consider adopting a particular mode of writing in response to the image.
• There are many alternatives – you could even try writing poems about the artwork.

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Patrick Wright received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

• In a world fraught with anxiety, stress, and environmental and humanitarian disasters, people are looking for ways to cope.
• Among these is mindfulness, which is linked to meditation.

What does mindfulness actually mean?

• It was about remembering your ethics, the right way to behave in each moment.
• It’s shifted within the modern context and is usually translated as “being conscious and aware of the present moment”.
• A mindfulness practice would be a way to bring you back to the present.
• I find mindfulness and compassion go together.

How do we include meditation in our daily lives?

• To make your meditation as familiar a practice as brushing your teeth or having a shower.
• Making it a daily practice, at a particular time of the day, helps people: it’s less negotiable.
• In The Compassionate Activist I distinguish between five categories of contemplative practices: calming, insight, positive qualities, engagement and shadow integration.
• When expressive movement (a form of dance) or yoga are carried out with a real conscious awareness of the body, they can be very useful to prepare the mind for meditation.

How important are insight and self-awareness?

• We often don’t believe it’s as simple as that, but it’s amazing how much support we can give ourselves just by coming back to the present moment.
• Of course, if we have experienced traumatic incidents, then these practices are best done in parallel with psychotherapy.
• There are also practices for cultivating positive, pro-social qualities such as curiosity, wonder, compassion, joy and gratitude, which are innate aspects of being human.
• The brain likes to learn quickly, so it tends to learn from negative experiences, but we have many wonderful experiences as well.

What is your advice for people wanting to refocus their lives?

• So 84,000 different ways to find the truth.
• Your own truth.
• But the reason that number is given is that apparently in the audience where the Buddha spoke, there were 84,000 people.

Lucy Draper-Clarke received research funding from the Mind and Life Institute in 2018.

• SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- MAPS Public Benefit Corporation ("MAPS PBC"), a clinical-stage company dedicated to changing the way mental health conditions are treated, announced that the American Medical Association ("AMA") current procedural terminology ("CPT") III codes for psychedelic-assisted therapies, first announced in July 2023, are now in effect.
• MAPS PBC and COMPASS Pathways collaborated to work with the AMA to create these new CPT III codes.
• On March 3, 2023, the AMA published the Summary of Panel Actions which included the acceptance of the new CPT III codes.
• With Breakthrough Therapy designation given to MDMA in 2017, MAPS PBC has requested the FDA grant Priority Review of the NDA.

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