The Power of Creative Arts to Mental and Physical Health. Observations on the 2024 Veteran's Creative Arts Festival in Denver Colorado.
- Cynthia Douglas-Ybarra
- May 23, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: May 30, 2024
I don't want to be clinical or scholarly as I write this because there is plenty of information and evidence based work that supports the assertion that creative arts can be healing. At the end of this missive I will add some articles that you can reference, but this is a personal story, one from the heart, one that I have experienced first hand.
In December of 2023 I learned that I was a national Gold Medal Winner for a personal essay I submitted to the local Veteran's Creative Arts Fair in Omaha Nebraska. I was actually floored when I was told I had won at the national level. The first thought that went through my mind was that I must have been the only person sending in an essay in that category because to believe otherwise would be to give myself credit as a writer, and a good one at that.
What I found out when I arrived in Denver on May 11th was that out of 6000 entries from 3000 Veterans, 159 of us won gold and were invited to participate in the festival. That really made me proud of myself and the 158 Veterans at this festival. What a cool accomplishment.
The festival itself was a brilliant surprise. I had no idea what to expect but I can say it exceeded any expectation I had come with. The National VA, Denver VA, and the VFW Ladies Auxiliary did a fantastic job making the festival stress free. It just worked. I felt such good care of, no stress, no worries. They took extremely good care of each and every one of us. The ladies auxiliary has been supporting this festival for 24 years. Incredible.
Meeting such talented and wonderful Veterans was the highlight to me. What an extraordinary group of individuals. The incredible courage it took to share work about trauma, PTSD, MST, and combat experience was in abundance. While sharing those experiences can be triggering to some folks, it was handled in such a way that we all felt supported and safe. I can't stress that enough. Thank you to those men and women who shared painful and difficult stories. you are loved and supported.
The schedule was fairly rigorous, particularly for the performers, but it was straight forward and you never had to guess what was coming. The VA had created an application that told us what the daily meals were, where we needed to be and when, and any other information you needed to be successful.
The Auxiliary had a snack room, an art room and a game room set up all week. You could just pop in, have a coffee or tea and relax. The VA had doctors on staff who actually retrieved medication for me, and for other Veterans as well. No scolding, no shame, just helpful and generous.
As a writer, the ability to share my writing and to listen to other Veterans read was healing. it was hard at times, but we supported each other. So much love and talent in those rooms.
The ability to put trauma down on paper externalizes it, it helps flush the system and to have a deeper understanding that it connects you to other people and that, most importantly, you can heal through the arts. You don't have to carry the burden alone. There is a whole brigade of soldiers, sailors, and marines standing right there beside you.
Art Therapy and Cognitive Processing Therapy for Combat-Related PTSD: A Randomized Controlled Trial - PMC (nih.gov)
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