A cathartic path to healing: art therapy at Milliya Rumurra

Alcohol and drug rehabilitation is challenging, but Broome’s sole rehab centre has found that art therapy provides a cathartic path to healing. Milliya Rumurra incorporate weekly art therapy sessions into their 13-week treatment program, run by therapist and case manager Taylor Jardine. Differentiating from traditional psychology sessions, art therapy removes direct dissection of the individuals’ issues, and focuses on creation. “Art therapy is less about talking and confrontation, and the discomfort that arises from that, it is about expression and storytelling,” Taylor said. Using art as a vehicle to express emotions or unpack trauma has been a consistent exercise across humanity historically. Though the term art therapy was coined in 1942 by British artist Adrian Hill, after he observed how making art during his spate of severe tuberculosis improved his emotional wellbeing. He went on to teach art to patients gripped by the same illness and examined how a therapeutic approach in teaching art supported their mental health. Though the therapy module has been adapted and modernised, Mr Hill’s core art therapy principles are echoed in Taylor’s sessions. “When our clients create art, it is risen from their subconscious, making it an amplification of the individual through a less direct medium,” Taylor said. This is demonstrated in a particular technique of mind mapping, where clients essentially scaffold thoughts and images that represent their headspace. “With some mind maps there will be the polarity of light and dark, so what we will then do is create subheadings around things in life that represent this paradox,” Taylor said. “It could be family and friends or nature as the light, and then substance issues and ruminative thoughts as the dark.” “Then when it’s an overall piece, the creator can absorb it and start to uncover why things have fallen in the ways that they have.” Mind mapping is merely one example of an art therapy practice Taylor employs, others include music and sound therapy, painting, drawing and even creating murals as a team. Though the creative modes may differ, the creations by clients always offer insights into their state of minds. “So much can be said in just one piece of art,” Taylor said. Milliya Rumurra CEO Andrew Armor said he similarly has observed how beneficial art therapy has been to clients who have suffered from PTSD and are not ready to discuss their trauma. “Art therapy is particularly helpful therapeutic tool for people who might not be ready to talk about particular issues,” Mr Armor said. He noted patents’ transformations through the program are vividly reflected in their artworks. “I’ve seen people over the years when they have drawn an interpretation of something at the beginning of the program, then towards the end they re-visited that drawing and you can see in the work how their interpretation of themselves or something has evolved.” Milliya Rumurra meaning ‘brand new day’ in Yawuru language reflects a core message in Taylor’s art therapy sessions. “We try and focus on the everyday and the here and now,” Taylor said. “As a team we ensure that there is strength and therefore our clients trust the program and its delivery.” “We never want it to seem like if a client doesn’t see out all 13 weeks, then it’s a negative or a failure, because that doesn’t support somebody’s journey to recovery.”