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Healing from a mental illness is a daunting task. There is more to it than just taking meds and going to therapy. Recently, Managing Editor Adrienne Williams and I attended "The Art of Healing" conference created by the National Artists for Mental Health (NAMH) which showed us that healing relies on more than medical and technological advances. The conference was held at the Albany Marriott Hotel from October 16-18. There were presentations and workshops covering a wide variety of topics such as horticultural therapy, yoga, shamanism, creative visualization, poetry, and much more. The workshops and presentations offered exercises and ideas that can be used in daily life to foster a greater sense of well being. When used as supplements to existing programs, they offer ways to rejuvenate, restore balance and promote personal transformation. It was the hope of NAMH that the approaches and techniques presented at the conference become a source of genuine self-empowerment.

The first workshop Adrienne attended was horticultural therapy, which is a process utilizing plants and horticultural activities to improve the healing of body, mind and spirit. During the workshop, Adrienne realized that she had been engaging in horticultural therapy for years through her vegetable garden and house plant collection. Weeding and digging are great ways to work out stress and anger.

Adrienne and I attended a workshop called "Shamanism: The Visionary Root of Healing" with Stephen Larsen, Ph.D and his wife Robin Larsen, Ph.D. Together they wrote "A Fire in the Mind: The Life of Joseph Campbell." Joseph Campbell was an extraordinary man who shared his ideas on Comparative Religion with the world. The figure of the shaman dates back more than 30,000 years and shamans still practice today. Modern medicine learned a lot from shamans, who discovered the first medicinal plants and other natural curatives previously unknown. The workshop examined the role of the vision quest that shamans must endure to strengthen their connection with the spirits fundamental to the healing process. Shamans saw sickness as a spiritual crisis, not just a physical one. A person living in a shamanistic culture who experiences the psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia might be regarded as a potential shaman himself rather than a dysfunctional person in need of treatment as in our society. During the latter part of the workshop, we sat in a circle and closed our eyes while Dr. Larsen guided us on a vision quest, beating his drum at different tempos all the while. At first he beat it slowly with more space in between each beat and then faster with less and less space in between. Afterwards, participants were invited to share their visions. One man saw himself sitting around an ancient ceremonial fire with his Paleolithic buddy "Ugh." Neither myself nor Adrienne had a vision, but it was an interesting experience nonetheless.

We attended workshops on Tai Chi and Chi Kung where the emphasis was on movement, body alignment and relaxation techniques. The exercises were simple and helpful, especially if they become part of daily routines. Other workshops covered areas of creative expression such as writing, painting and singing. Overall, what we realized was that as mental health consumers, we need creative outlets to express our thoughts and feelings and something besides medication to calm us down.