UCLArts and Healing

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.