ART-TO-HEART

Art Therapy Technique & Release Groups

The Purpose

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Art-to-Heart is a program through Dream Identity Counseling that provides creative release for teens and adults to cope with daily stressors, release suppressed feelings and build family cohesion  through expressive art. Art-to Heart provides a safe space for communities to connect and heal creatively through affordable care.  The impact of relatability, shared experiences and expressive arts allows each individual to feel seen and empowered to create their "Dream Identity" through intention to be in the present their inner selves and with others through art expression.

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The beauty of art is the ability to create and perceive from your own experiences and creativity.  Art therapy techniques provides the opportunity to process experiences or feelings through a creative eye and give space where words may be too difficult to express.  No pressure about having perfect art skills.  Let your heart speak through colors, brush strokes and shapes to create your story.

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The Genesis 

Entering private practice in 2020,  Danesha noticed the systematic problem that people were struggling to cope and find hope through environmental crises, including Covid-19 and outbreak events of racial injustices.  She turned back to her own childhood experiences as a teen in therapy and memories as an adult clinician who made history in a behavioral facility with teenage boys by reducing aggression and self-harm through creative arts. Those memories inspired her to do further research of the psychology of art and mental wellness. This led to completing a certification in Expressive Therapies: Creative Interventions for Emotional Regulation and Self-Awareness that promoted research based tools to create the result driven Art-to-Heart program.

The Art-to-Heart initiative has served the SWFL community through experiences of personal defeat and collective grief.  Danesha began a purpose driven mission to improve the state of mental wellness for community by providing psycho-educational videos on youtube about effective coping to recover lost hopes and dreams during lockdown of COVID-19. As the online Art-to-Heart segments began to help families use artistic and creative release while at home, those segments eventually led to in person groups for community healing, Business Wellness Consulting groups providing workplace coping skills and in-person youth groups such as the

Art-to-Heart Summer Camp Scholarship Program. 

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Why art for self care?

Art-to-Heart Coping strategies:

• Mindful and elevated self-care 

• Activities features the psychology of color, imagery and mindfulness that promotes wellness and balance. 

• Uses sensory involvement to reduce anxiety by promoting a sense of calm through grounding techniques

• Connect and communicate emotional intelligence with others

• Tools to cope with depression, stress and grief

• Build emotional intelligence and awareness

• Re-create brain-ways of trauma processing

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The Goal

1. Continue Scholarship Funding

2. Brick and Mortar

3. Expressive Arts Virtual and Media Expansion 

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Why Become a Sponsor?

Our main goal is  to help break the stigma by providing access to care and creating tools for people to prioritize their mental health through creative release instead of the cliche talk therapy. Minorities, especially, face many micro aggressions, discriminations, and barriers within society, and many of those needs have been ignored by mainstream society but also hidden in silence. While silence has been taught to be a protective factor,  the lack of awareness surrounding some of these challenges further impacts the cycle that minorities suffer from lack of resources as well as lack of access to adequate health care, more specifically, mental health care.  Relating to Minority Mental Health, there are challenges such as insurance gaps covering mental health services, lack of relatable providers of healthcare in urban areas,  which also includes lack of multicultural competence of minority mental health.  This experience has left minorities to feel helpless and voiceless in advocating for their mental health needs.  The cycle continues to lead to helpless behavior, which heightens the stigma of reaching out for support and finding resources can become a stressor in itself.

Although there has been an increase in Black women-owned businesses, Black-owned firms struggle with lack of access to funding due to statistically, black-owned firms being twice as likely to be rejected for business loans in the U.S.  We need support in promoting and creating wellness opportunities for a healthier community.