This story is a part of the SBS health and wellbeing initiative Mind Your Health launched on World Mental Health Day (10 October). Click to visit the SBS Mind Your Health portal, featuring digital stories, podcasts and videos in English and multiple languages.
Jason* came to Australia to get his PhD. When suddenly the pandemic broke out, he found his route back to Korea blocked.
Without friends and family around, he endured heavy bouts of homesickness and depression.
But then he met Hong Ran Lee, an adviser of the Australian Korean Art Therapy Association (AKATA).
This non-profit organisation founded in 2013 aims to help members of the local Korean community find healing through creative expression.
“At first, Jason was sceptical about what kind of effect art therapy would have. However, the more we met up to draw and talk together, the better he was able to understand his own feelings,” Hong Ran tells SBS Korean.
During their sessions, Jason was encouraged to draw as a means to work through his pain.
In their first session, when Jason was prompted to draw a house, he presented a building with only a small door and windows. Instead of his wife and daughter inside, he depicted his parents and siblings.
By reflecting on his drawing, Jason opened up about his strained relationship with his wife and eventually acknowledged his own role in the situation.
What is art therapy?
Jason is among a growing number of people who have benefitted from art therapy, an integrative treatment that employs artistic self-expression to foster improvements in mental health and wellbeing.
Yung Shim Lee, an auditor of AKATA, claims people show less resistance with an art therapist compared to traditional therapy techniques.
"When a person meets a general counsellor, they immediately put up a shield thinking they will be judged. Because people limit what they say, it can take a long time to get to the root of their problem.”
However, she believes art therapy brings people out of their shell.
"They gain insight by explaining the picture they draw or paint without realising it," she says.
“Art therapy doesn’t end with fleeting words. The works remain. You can see your paintings again, and you feel their permanence. By observing your work, you notice behavioural patterns and identify what needs changing."
‘I want to help my community’
Sara Park is another who has experienced art therapy firsthand. Now she dreams of becoming a practitioner herself.
Currently working as a nurse, she is building her art portfolio under the tutelage of Nam Soon Lee, president of AKATA.
In order to practise and use the registered art therapist title, she’ll need to complete a minimum two-year master’s degree and 750 hours of supervised clinical placement.
She’ll also need to gain professional membership of the Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Arts Therapies Association (ANZACATA).
Sara says she has received a lot of support from art therapy.
"My childhood involved moving around different countries, facing distinct cultures, languages, customs and values. I struggled throughout high school up to adulthood with no sense of belonging or identity, insecurity, anxiety, depression and alienation," she says.
But through art therapy I've recovered a lot of confidence and realised I'm not as useless as I thought, but a person who's talented and deserves to be praised.Sara Park
Sara says she wants to share with others that “same sense of relief and satisfaction”.
"I met a schoolgirl recently. She was quite defensive, highly irritable and negative, but most of all, hungry for attention, love and affection. I saw my young self in her and felt my heart ache.
“Even though I may be able to empathise with her, that doesn’t necessarily mean I know exactly how to help her. I see art therapy as an effective way to communicate and aid vulnerable people.”
An art class run by the Australia Korean Art Therapy Association. Credit: Australian Korean Art Therapy Association (AKATA)
"Day to day, we build up stress and anxiety. By the end of the week, we are exhausted but also angry; even the smallest trigger sets us off.
“For me, having regular art sessions releases that pressure. Sometimes, I want to scream and throw a tantrum, but I can't do that. So, then I take a piece of paper and some crayons, and scribble away in different colours until I feel the pressure lift,” she says.
Group goals
Nam Soon Lee, the president of AKATA, says the pandemic has brought more attention to art therapy.
According to the World Health Organization, the first year of COVID-19 brought about a 25 per cent increase in depression and anxiety globally.
Recognising that many in the Australian Korean community felt “trapped”, Nam Soon says they decided to roll out an art therapy program via Zoom.
Dubbed 'Todak Todak’ (which translates roughly to patting or hugging), the program saw participants meet every week online and complete daily drawing and colouring homework.
Thanks to funding from Sydney’s Ryde Council, participants could take part for a subsidised price of only $5 per person.
“We found art therapy was a way to work through the many hard-to-define feelings stirred up by the pandemic,” she says.
From left to right: Yung Shim Lee, Hong Ran Lee and Nam Soon Lee of the Australia Korean Art Therapy Association Source: SBS
“There were too many applicants. The waiting line was so long that we had three sessions a day," says Yung Shim Lee, auditor of AKATA.
As a result, Yung Shim was a recipient of a 2020 City of Ryde volunteer recognition award.
"Since it was a volunteer award, I have to keep volunteering. I received the award as a representative of AKATA, so I’m thankful to my colleagues,” she says
Healing through music
Like art therapy, music therapy is enjoying renewed interest.
Music therapists use a range of music-based interventions to address client goals; these may include singing, songwriting, musical improvisation and deep listening.
Do Yun Kim is studying a master's degree in creative music therapy at Western Sydney University.
He says music “comforted” him during one of the bleakest times in his life.
"When I was early in my 20s, I came to Australia on a working holiday visa. It was a lonely and incredibly anxious time. I had no money and felt a lot of uncertainty about the future. But I had music,” he recalls.
Do Yun, who majored in psychology at university, says he wants others to reap the mental health benefits of his twin loves.
Do Yun Kim is studying a master's degree in creative music therapy Credit: Do Yun Kim
"When our minds are in a maladaptive state, maladaptive physical symptoms appear. We call it depression, anxiety, neuroticism, and so on.
“Through music, we can express things we can't express in words, we can sympathise and accept things.”
LISTEN TO
"함께 그려요"... 미술치료와 음악 치료가 호주 한인 사회에 어떤 도움을 주고 있을까?
SBS Korean
04/10/202315:45
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