The Healing Power of Art

"Brainwaves", original encaustic painting series for Roaring Fork Neurology.

Something fresh is going on at the newly expanded Roaring Fork Neurology center in Basalt, Colorado. Dr. Brooke Allen has expanded her center and created a Whole Brain Wellness program that supplements traditional treatment practices by incorporating non-traditional healing elements like yoga, breathwork, nutrition coaching, art therapies and functional movement.

These holistic brain supports are all part of the revolving 8-week Whole Brain Health Programs that launches this September. The program focus on teaching tools to manage modifiable risks for dementia, injury recovery and prevention through coaching, skill building and supports to put things into place so people can maintain their wellness through newfound support systems.  Through teaching patients and community members to harness these tools RFN hopes to change patient outcomes and enrich lives.

Additionally, Dr. Allen approached me in May to ask me to design an art experience for patients based on my Shellscapes series. I did not realize Dr. Allen had been following my work until she reached out and expressed that there is so much research about the healing power of art on the brain and that she had never seen any art as soothing as mine. I was floored, to say the least, and have been thrilled to collaborate with Dr. Allen and Emily Hightower who is in charge of the integrative, therapeutic support sessions and join as a therapeutic art instructor. This custom installation is entitled Brainwaves and encompasses nineteen paintings to-date with more to come down the road.