Merche Moriana: "Art is intrinsic to the human being"

Emotions are never something that influence us in a unidirectional way: in the same way that they have an effect on us, as individuals we can also adopt strategies and routines that allow us to modulate them, although never control them by full.

We have an example of this in the use of creative therapies as a way to manage stress and various types of emotions with the capacity to wear us down psychologically if they appear in excess. Here we will talk about it with an expert in the field of art therapy, Merche Moriana.

• Related article: "Types of stress and their triggers"

Interview with Merche Moriana: positive stress management with creative therapies

Merche Moriana is a coach and art therapist with consultations in Barcelona and Esplugues de Llobregat, and she also offers her services through the Internet. In this interview, she talks about the potential of creative therapies in enhancing stress management skills.

Does art have therapeutic potential?

It is a very interesting question. Art is intrinsic to the human being, we have been representing the world on walls since prehistoric times and creating objects with an aesthetic purpose.

This seems to be due to the fact that the artistic behavior of the human being resides in the development of our brain. On the one hand, the ability to organize and interpret sensory information. On the other hand, it has a social connection function. The human being needs for his psychological well-being to be with other humans. And art brings together personal memory with collective memory for its transmission is what we know as culture.

Thus, the artistic production of the person is spontaneous and allows to reestablish the natural capacity of the individual to relate to himself and to the world around him more satisfactorily.

The therapeutic value lies there precisely, in the exploration of the environment or the conflict in a safe way, through the symbolic value of these mental constructions. In other words, artistic production is the symbolic representation of the life of the individual. And from that representation we can offer a therapeutic path.

Can it be said that creativity is, among other things, a way of channeling and expressing painful emotions?

Of course. Creativity is entering the unknown, or unexplored, so it can be applied to cognitive development and the subjective component of emotions.

Going into painful emotions involves reliving certain traumatic situations, so it is natural that certain resistances appear or mechanisms are activated to avoid feeling them.

However, artistic production allows them to be explored indirectly, without addressing the emotion itself, but in its symbolic form. A dialogue is established between this new form and the individual. We access the event to be transformed by reinterpreting its emotional content.

This happens because during the creative process, various areas of our brain are activated, including different memory systems, such as the episodic, where autobiographical details are contained, and categorical memory, which contains information about the world, oneself, and others. And other brain areas related to the formation of associations and synthesis.

From your point of view, what are the basic pillars of creative therapies?

First of all, clarify that the purpose of creative therapies is not aesthetic. Creativity is not limited to painting, sculpture, music, or dance. Although we usually associate it with “producing something”, creativity is also looking for new, more appropriate responses, instead of remaining stagnant; is to check that it is necessary to change.

The pillars of creative therapies, for me, are fundamentally three. The first is to help the person explore their inner experience and subjective meaning. The second is to emphasize specific human characteristics such as decision and self-realization. And the third, the development of the inherent potential of the person, so that he is the author of his own life, that is, that he directs her life and not past unresolved events.

Can everyone be creative by learning to be creative through exercises?

Of course. Being creative is an intellectual resource that can be developed and nurtured. We are all creative, in our own way each one develops and uses his creativity every day, since creativity is the ability to generate new ideas, to think originally.

To foster creativity, curiosity must be reinforced; ask ourselves questions, investigate, experiment and lose the fear of error. Disadvantages become opportunities to see things differently.

Creativity helps us to be more motivated, to have more positive thoughts, being enriching contact with the environment.

To release our creative impulse, the first step is to get rid of the prejudices that have been acquired throughout life. Through sensory perception, such as touch, sight... you can start the creative game and open yourself to new stimuli.

For this reason, the creative experience is ideal, since it allows to play, to experiment through senses with paint, paper, clay, music and other elements, with the intention of expressing and communicate.

In the case of stress management, how can the potential of creativity be harnessed?

The origin of stress occurs in the perception of a certain imbalance between demands, external or internal, and the resources available to overcome it. So creativity is the ability to find solutions or innovative contributions to overcome these situations, whether they are everyday or vital.

It also has a protective effect, since it has been scientifically proven that doing a creative activity for 45 minutes reduces the levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.

Creative expression is a modulator of stress because it helps to express and communicate feelings, facilitating the reflection, communication, as a consequence reduces stress in interpersonal relationships and intrapersonal.

How do changes for the better take place in the person who learns to modulate stress by enhancing the creative side of it?

What is a clear indicator for me that changes are taking place is the person's mood. They go from being sad, worried, distressed to gradually feeling lighter, more expressive, more smiling.

Creativity makes us more optimistic, it tells us something like; Even though you can't see it now, I know you will find a solution. And to be more resilient, inconvenience, uncertainty and suffering are accepted as part of life. You learn from experiences and are integrated into a new mind map. What made me suffer yesterday, today is something tangible that I can modulate with my own hands.

I love it when I see the transformation in their faces, from the beginning of an exercise with mistrust and certain reservations, and the pride and satisfaction when finishing it. Creative therapy is an active therapy, the person actively participates in their improvement, in this way self-esteem is seen benefited, the prejudices towards oneself are overcome and the fear of facing situations is lost for fear that they are stressful. In short, you feel effective and valuable self, so you adapt more flexibly to experiences.