Mental Health and Art

A community is a group of people who agree to grow together - Simon Sinek

This year, Madalena prepared a very special surprise for our outsight team! Benefiting from our community, she invited the daughter of one of us, Luisa a fourth-year medical student in Groningen (The Netherlands) to join us on our very special team learning and reconnecting day (we call it Important/Non urgent Meeting Day and we do it every 6 weeks). 

Mental health has been a big concern to all of us. Statistics in the news confirm it, but in our daily lives as coaches, we can see the toll the pandemic is taking on all of us: exhaustion, feeling overwhelmed, depression, anxiety…

So, Madalena invited Luisa to share her recent learning  of how art therapy is used in a psychiatric hospital to help people heal, “get out of their heads”, reconnect with their emotions and label them, focus on a simple task ‘here & now’, experience a sense of gradually “letting go of control” while painting with closed eyes and discovering a new sense of freedom in that process. 

Our guide shared her own personal experience while thoughtfully guiding us through four very simple exercises.  After the exercises, as we also do with our clients, she assisted us in debriefing our experiences and it was amazing to discover what had occurred to each of us, as we shared out loud with the team. And… how our inner voices quickly pop up in such a simple task: “I need to be very quick”, “I need to do this perfectly”, “I need to make sure I have a plan”, “I’m on my own, I need to figure this out by myself”, “ I can’t let other people wait for me”, “I need to do this but it doesn’t feel pleasurable to me”, “oh! I can do this differently and now it is pleasurable''.

It was a moment of joy, connection, discovery and self-awareness, and a wonderful reminder of how we want to work with our clients and as a team. 

Thank you Luisa for your generosity, what you’ve shared with us and your mindful guidance. 

The aprons Madalena ordered Colantes gave the final coloring touch to our team photo.

Happy holidays ❤️ We hope 2022 brings you what matters most to you