UCLArts and Healing

The National Endowment for the Arts has announced a new federal interagency task force to promote research on the arts and human development. The Department of Health & Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Education are among 13 federal agencies and departments seeking to advance research on the arts and well-being across the lifespan:

• HHS/Administration for Children & Families
• HHS/Administration on Aging
• Department of Education/Office of Innovation & Improvement
• NIH/National Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine
• NIH/National Institute on Aging
• NIH/Office of Science Education
• NIH/Office of Behavioral & Social Sciences Research
• NIH/National Institute of Child Health & Human Development
• NIH/National Institute of Mental Health
• Institute of Museum & Library Services
• Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration
• National Science Foundation/Science of Learning Centers
• National Endowment for the Arts

Click here to view full announcement
Click here to view their report

A CNN.com article published Monday Jan. 2 about a new fitness program combining aerobic exercise with drumming referenced research on the benefits of group drumming by Ping Ho, founding director of UCLArts and Healing, who is quoted. The article received top billing by UCLA Media Coverage for the first report of the New Year.

Click here to view the article

You’re thinking too much.

The words of my longtime jazz-modern dance teacher, Reggie Brown, popped into my head as I tried to figure out the steps in a random Zumba class at the gym for the first time ‒ at times with two left feet.

When I simply mirrored the moves without trying to figure out how to execute them or worrying about how they were going to look, I discovered that I was able to do them “right” and stay in sync. I felt as if I were learning in the manner of a young child again. Perhaps our facility in mastery of language and movement as children is related to lack of self-consciousness or judgment.

This principle was clearly demonstrated in the Academy-Award winning film, “The King’s Speech”, whereby King George VI discovers his ability to speak fluently when moving, making sounds, or listening to music. Thankfully, the ability to express who we are through movement and sound requires only what we possess from birth - a body and a voice.

Interestingly, I have observed that it is generally difficult to get people to move spontaneously. Next after that, it is a challenge to get people to sing. In these fundamental realms may lie our greatest areas of self-judgment.

The Winter 2011 (volume 11, number 2) issue of UCLA Total Wellness Magazine, a student publication, focuses on integrative medicine and features an article entitled, “Healing the Mind through the Arts”. The article (on page 31) offers an overview of creative arts therapies as a field as well as a synopsis of the specific realms of dance/movement, visual arts, writing, music, and psychodrama/drama therapies. To view the article, click on the following link: Total Wellness Magazine

“How Group Drumming May Improve Low-Income Student Behavior” by Meredith Melnick in TIME Magazine online - December 9, 2010

UCLArts and Healing instructor, Rachel Ballon, PhD, MFT, shares her perspectives on the writer’s inner journey in this brief transcribed interview: Writers Inner Journey Interview.

Participants in UCLArts and Healing programs are co-creators in program planning. From the inception of UCLArts and Healing, participants have been asked to rate their experience of each program (and each session in a series) on a scale of 1 – 5, with 5 as the highest possible rating). In any given program, two-thirds of participants typically give the program a rating of “5″, and one-third will rate it a “4″. It is also not unusual for UCLArts and Healing programs to receive ratings of “10″ on a scale of 1 – 5, as an expression of extreme satisfaction. For example, one participant wrote:

Amazing! Tears opened my heart “10”.

UCLArts and Healing programs are uniquely effective at facilitating emotional expression, insight, and a sense of community among a diverse group of strangers. Participants consistently report that they have learned something that can be applied to their personal lives or work. Two such comments received during the most recent program on “Healing Back and Neck Pain through Movement: A Demonstration of 7 Approaches” included the following:

…I am pleased to report an immediately helpful physical response to the presentation Monday evening: the experiential exercise led by Leslie Peters to realign the spine has been of great help to relieve my lower back pain. I have been going to physical therapy for weeks trying with little gain to accomplish the same thing that in seconds this technique accomplishes. Thank you, Leslie, and to you and all the presenters for the hopefulness provided by this program. I plan to pursue further healing through the resources you provided.

…The program was incredible as always. You consistently design events that are empowering, informative and entertaining…

The “Healing Back and Neck Pain through Movement: A Demonstration of 7 Approaches ” program was filmed by the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA for future use as a teaching tool for medical students at UCLA and elsewhere. Another comment about the usefulness of the program was from a current medical student at UCLA:

I really enjoyed the Monday night program on alternative approaches to neck and back pain. Even though there was a limit to how in-depth each presenter could go in just the one program (due to the fairly large number of presenters), I was actually happy to get a brief overview of so many areas of practice. I had tried a few of these myself in the past - yoga, tai chi, physical therapy - but hadn’t had the chance to try pilates or alexander technique and had never even heard of dance therapy or feldenchreis (sp?). This was interesting, as I feel like I have always been on the high-end of medical students in terms of interest in and awareness of alternative practices for things like pain relief (having taken classes and rotations in CAM, Eastern medicine, etc). One of my favorite parts of the Monday program was the fact that every presenter made an effort to get us doing some of the techniques, so we could feel what some of the concepts felt like and also go home with some practical (easy) exercises to try. A doctoring session on these practices, especially one that incorporated some “practice” like the evening session did, would probably be very useful.

The following comments from the community writing programs were representative of others:

In this class, I found my voice to say the unspeakable.

I found a voice for feelings and memories that I never dreamed could transform myself let alone profoundly affect others.

It’s so healing to be with others and communicate below the surface of social superficiality.

Programmatic outcomes among medical center patients and families at UCLA Tiverton House have been similar to those of the community programs. This sample of post-program comments from these participants reflects the importance of sharing and emotional release:

I’ve never given a thought to poetry as an outlet or help. My Eyes have been opened. Thank you and Bless you!

Very enlightening! Makes you realize so many others have gone through so much and makes what you are going through seem so small.

Thank you! We need to talk and be heard.

This session was extremely helpful – much through provoking ideas. Thanks so much for the opportunity.

A wonderfull [sic] experience and a lot to take with me to think about.

Very emotional time for me, so much I could relate to – Thank you.

Excellent! Dr. Carroll was more than I expected. I was “moved” ~ Thank you!!

In 2007, UCLArts and Healing activities caught the attention of an independent film production company, FiddleHeadFern Productions, which sought to produce a film with positive social value in the arena of complementary and alternative medicine. They chose to capture the experience of fifth grade students participating in the drumming intervention aimed at social and emotional skill building in the Los Angeles Unified School District. It will be a central component of a story on the lives of students in the Los Angeles Unified School District and how the drumming intervention can help them. Filming of the intervention was done in Spring 2008 and will continue in 2009 as the filmmakers follow some of the featured students into middle school in order to document their experience there.

SELF-HELP EXERCISE #1

By James Shelley

As a young writer on a TV show in the 1980s, I encountered a “monster” boss who enjoyed flaunting his power by torturing his staff writers. My fear turned into self-loathing, and I quit the show and eventually left the entertainment business as a result of his taunting.

In this exercise suggested by Dr. Rachel Ballon, written almost 25 years later, I confront the monster and overcome my fear of failure. It has turned around my career - I am now pursuing a career in film and TV, which I hope to resume after the strike.

Bring on the monsters!!!

INT. STORY EDITOR’S OFFICE - 1983 MORNING

ARTHUR SCHMENDRICK, 60-something, bald with thin ring of hair left and even thinner pencil moustache, squints at a script from a small pile on his army-issue desk.

Office walls are cheap faux wood panels. An Elvis Presley movie poster for CLAMROAST looms over the office.

I sit down in a stiff chair opposite Arthur. He picks up a typewritten script.

ME
What do you think?

ARTHUR
(BEAT - then)
Jim. We hire young writers like yourself every once and awhile.

ME
I really appreciate the opp…

ARTHUR
We keep them around for six months or so. But you should not consider this permanent employment.

ME
(stunned - Oh, shit!)

ARTHUR
Rarely work out.

ME
Er, my script - ?

ARTHUR
It’s clear that you have a long way to go. But in this business there are just too many qualified candidates -

Arthur runs his fingers over his bald pate, strokes his 40s pencil moustache.

ME
But I really -

ARTHUR
(hand raised, ala salute)
So do a lot of young film school guys like you.

ME
(dazed)
I worked all night.

ARTHUR
Jim, to keep you around wouldn’t be fair to seasoned writers like Larry.

ME
Larry…

ARTHUR
Met him at Temple. Scripts are gold. Now we keep him busy with freelance.

ME
How do I get to -

ARTHUR
YOU aren’t Larry. You have to starve, suffer. Not just count on your college degree.

ME
You know, Arthur -

ARTHUR
YOU know what Elvis told me on the first day of shooting CLAMROAST?

ME
(Elvis accent)
“Momma, where be my Darvon”?

ARTHUR
“There’s no room in this business for amateurs.”

ME
I won’t let you intimidate me.

ARTHUR
The bottom line, Jim. We only keep an A-Team here.

ME
Arthur you’re right. I’m new. I didn’t direct Elvis films like you. I’m not a pro.

ARTHUR
That’s right.

ME
But I’m not a scrawny, alcoholic, bald, old Jew whose only claim to fame is directing a hillbilly truck driver.

ARTHUR
You have -

ME
(cont.)
And whose main skill seems to be torturing bright, young talent instead of helping them.

ARTHUR
(cont.)
- no respect for -

ME
For who - Larry?

ARTHUR
You couldn’t touch -

ME
Isn’t he the guy whose desk I took over?

ARTHUR
Er…

ME
The one with the empty bottles of Jack and the spliffs in the bottom drawer?

Now it is Arthur who is silent.

After long, silent stares, I stride out of the room.

FREEZE FRAME

Personal Reflections on Writing to Heal from Ping Ho, Founder and Director of UCLArts and Healing

After sitting in on 4 or 5 expressive writing workshops and 4 or 5 poetry workshops, I am starting to get it. The very first time I did stream of consciousness writing with Dr. Rachel Ballon, the ideas were all over the place - a veritable mess, but out of the three pages of ramble - there was an “aha” that was probably worth hundreds of hours of marital therapy. It is freeing to “let go” and let a piece evolve. Quite often after I write for about 10 minutes - the REAL issue emerges in the last minute. So, at least I know where I should begin next time.

I recently returned from China, where I decided to keep a journal in poetry format - in order to keep my entries pithy. What I discovered in this process was that all it took to write well was to take in life with all five senses, and my attempts at writing poetry revealed how much I was not taking in. This newfound awareness kept me in the present moment more often, which filled my day with more rich memories than blurs. Sometimes the pieces flowed forth freely; other times, they took a while to craft, yet all were immensely gratifying to read.

These classes in Writing to Heal are a genuine hybrid of art and therapy, which gives them a depth that is fascinating. A sense of community rapidly develops among an impressively diverse group of strangers. Emotions surface at unexpected times, usually when reading what one has written. Participants often report that they get more out of reading their work than writing it. Listening to others can be as enlightening, moving, and inspiring as reading what one has written oneself. Writing with authenticity, even by novices, can rival the work of the masters. With self-awareness comes the possibility for change.

Since writing is so powerful and accessible, it should be offered as a therapeutic tool in a multitude of settings.