Sunday, November 27, 2022 | Special Advertising Section 1 R 34 Lisa was a typical 25-year-old. She had an apartment with a beautiful view of a weeping willow out her kitchen window. And, while she was busy juggling a burgeoning massage therapy business with taking nursing classes at Seattle Central Community College, she was adulting, paying bills, and seeing friends and family. Her life had a rhythm, and she a vision for her future. But then, one day she began to exhibit signs of bi-polar or manic-depressive illness. She had no previous experience with the types of symptoms she experienced: racing thoughts, uncontrollable moods, extreme anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation and erratic behavior. She lost many parts of her life in short order: her clients, her friends and family, her apartment and her ease with life. She found herself living unsheltered or in and out of hospitalizations. It was during one of her hospital stays where she found that art-making activities helped ease her depression and gave her back a sense of self-worth. Through her caseworker, she learned about Path with Art, an arts organization with a social impact mission.Working together, they helped Lisa register for a drawing class. From her first Path with Art class, Lisa rediscovered joy. The program created a healing-centered environment utilizing traumainformed practices, which provided opportunities for participants to work through their trauma in a way many had never experienced. And, for the first time since her diagnosis, Lisa felt connected to others. Basic needs can be a start, but not an end, to the cycles of traumas such as mental health crises, homelessness, substance use disorder and domestic violence. After a life in the “margins,” people need the opportunity to heal from within and meaningfully connect back to the communities in which they live. Evidenced-based studies show adding an artistic practice can reduce the Give a gift to Path with Art today, or support us by giving to others through shopping at our online artWORKS program for the holidays. artWORKS feature inspired products designed by Path with Art Participant Artists, who receive a majority percentage of the proceeds. Learn more or donate visiting www.pathwithart.org. need for pain medication and overall health care costs, decrease depression, and increase memory and cognitive function. Founded in 2008, Path with Art has been at the national forefront of the increasingly recognized practice of using the transformational power of art to bring dignity, awareness, and healing to the complex issues surrounding trauma and mental health challenges. Path with Art partners with more than 60 social service agencies — including Plymouth Housing, Sound Health, Mary’s Place, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, among others incorporating housing, emergency shelters, mental/behavioral health providers, substance use support, veteran, LGBTQIA+, Latino and others — to provide free, ADA-accessible, healing-centered, multidisciplinary arts programs in visual, music, literary and performance arts at no cost to those partners or the individuals they serve. Path with Art annually serves more than 1,000 individuals, including 300 veterans. Over her lifetime, Lisa has been hospitalized 26 times. In the past seven years that she’s been inThe Mental health crisis is at an all-time high and falls disproportionately on the most vulnerable. New approaches are needed to support individual and community well-being. Path with Art provides an innovative, science based and creative approach with proven impact. volved with Path with Art, she has not experienced one hospitalization and has been incentivized to stay on her treatment. Your support can provide critical funding that fuels individual and community recovery through arts programming and a venue for connection for families and adults, like Lisa, who are working to rebuild stability in their lives. Taking an innovative, science-based approach to healing trauma PROVIDED BY PATH WITH ART
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