Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us

the emotional resonance that traditional media just doesn’t have. And there is now research that confirms this,” he adds. Immersive programs like his “change hearts and minds in ways no other media can. Paradise is asking more of AI technology and narrative

According to peer-reviewed studies of this work, the techniques used by CMBM have “reduced the numbers of those qualifying for the diagnosis of PTSD by 80% or more.” Let us repeat that: Programs that incorporate drawings as an early intervention reduced PTSD by more than 80 percent. For some of us, our difficult experiences do reside in the conscio

very word “essay” comes from the French verb essayer, meaning “to

In his lab, Bessel van der Kolk saw on fMRI scans the significant decrease in the Broca’s area when a person was actively reliving a trauma through flashback. In this case, the individuals being monitored had survived a major car accident, and they were asked to recall as much as they could of that harrowing event. “Our scans showed that the Broca’

He talks about using toys, not tools—and encourages clients to think about what is in their own toy box to work with this energy. He evokes curiosity and creativity, encouraging exploration, inquiry, and discernment. “Sometimes we become so constrained and don’t use our imagination to help us heal. Think about something as simple as cloud watching,

memoirist starts with events, then derives meaning from them.”

trauma occupies the body, entering through the rational and the cognitive first don’t often work.” The arts and

“Black and Indigenous people don’t experience post-traumatic stress disorder. We experience persistent and pervasive traumatic stress. It’s ongoing,” Resmaa says. “White body supremacy weathers and erodes the brain architecture. It weathers the endocrine system. It weathers the musculoskeletal system. It weathers the reproductive system. It is the

you hear somebody mirroring you, and you don’t even realize it.