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I recently attended the National Artists for Mental Health's (NAMH) 5th annual Art of Healing Conference held in Schenectady, New York and I had a lot of fun. It was an experience of bonding with people I did not know through sharing my artwork, ideas, and hope for recovery from severe mental illness.

NAMH is a consumer-run organization that uses the expressive arts as a way to promote recovery for fellow consumers in the mental health system. What do they mean by Art of Healing? The answer to that lies in their conference program: 'To us, it means those experiences that nurture and strengthen the whole self, the connection between mind, body and spirit… When we give attention to and nurture all three elements of the self, we move towards a state of well-being and wholeness.' With that in mind, the conference was designed, with its speakers and workshops, in a different format from other mental health conferences you might attend in New York State. This was a conference that showcased alternative ways of healing from a mental illness. However, NAMH recognizes the need for existing systems of recovery and informs attendees that the approaches showcased are designed only as complementary to those systems.

Illustrating the uniqueness of the conference workshops, one workshop team laid brass Tibetan bowls on the floor in a circle. Monks in healing ceremonies for centuries have used these bowls of different sizes. Each bowl was tapped and hummed, vibrating throughout the room, putting listeners in a very introspective mood. Participants used crayons to express the state the vibrations coursing through their bodies put them in. Some very interesting designs were produced.

Another workshop had participants develop "dream" boxes where one's hopes and dreams could be stored. Materials from glitter of different hues to tiny wooden blocks, paper butterflies and cloth were arranged and glued to cardboard boxes of different shapes and sizes. Like the Jews of Jerusalem do within the cracks of the Wailing Wall, we put notes with precious thoughts, dreams and prayers into our boxes.

In a similar vein, a dozen other workshops promoted the therapeutic healing powers of the arts and alternative approaches to recovery, from journalizing to Mary Ellen Copeland's Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP).

WRAP outlines a means to live with mental illness beyond medications and hospitalizations, but is not a substitute for those methods belonging to the "medical model" of treatment. WRAP makes sure we take notice of the things we do to feel good inside, the things that make us upset, the things that trigger our symptoms, and develop a crisis action plan in the event that things fall apart. Community and removal from isolation is stressed as a very effective way to maintain recovery. This means an ongoing dialogue with clinicians and attending self-help, peer-run support groups where group members care for each other especially when some group members do not care for themselves. Any technique that an individual finds helpful in reducing stress and symptoms should be noted in the WRAP, which, when completed, becomes one's personal three-ring binder filled with helpful strategies for daily living and crisis planning.

Frank Marquit, CEO of NAMH said: "We do it through experiential and hands-on workshops, which are more than lectures. The arts open people up to one another. People connect when they're open and that's when healing takes place. People have told me that our conference has been a life-changing experience for them. The whole idea is for people to take all the tools and information they learn here and share it with their peers when they get home and apply it to their daily lives."