THERAPY GETS RESULTS THERE IS a place in West Vancouver where people go to gather, through artistic expression, the missing pieces of self. They turn sublimated and unresolved emotional responses into concrete, tangible entities. Since it was established in 1982 by Lois‘Woolf, The Vancouver Art ° “Therapy Institute has helped scores of learning disabled children, psychiatric patients, runaway teens, elderly people and grieving individuals come to terms with themselves. According to art therapist and Vancouver Art Therapy Institute supervisor Leslie Fletcher, 31, the art therapy process has essentially been with mankind from the beginning: ‘‘It’s a primal part of man and a natural process of learn- ing. We tend to start to Jose touch with the creative parts of ourselves as we become adults and turn to logic. We would be healthier if we integrated the two.” The local art therapy program is one of only a handful of such specialized services available across the country. The institute serves people of all ages. Clients may be referred by psychiatrists, school counsellors, social workers or by word of mouth. Clients attempt to express and address problems, which may vary from massive depressions to street kid conduct disorders, by giving them cencrete form in sculpture, painting and drawing. Said Fletcher: ‘‘The process ex- ternalizes the swirling baggage we carry inside our heads.”’ Fletcher recalls one elderly man, whose son had died years ago. The man had fived with and subse- quently lost himself in a depres- sion. A painting he produced one day moved him to tears, triggering in him a remembrance of the Se- News Reporter cond World War holocaust and his time served during the war. ‘‘It was something he hadn't dealt with. And sometimes it can hit you just like that,’’ she said. Art therapy was used extensively to help traumatized First World War soldiers give form to fear, loss and rage through painting and sculpting. The institute is supported by private funding. Clients are charg- ed a fee based on a sliding scale. While the program is supported by local mental health field specialists, Fletcher said there has traditionally been a resistance by the industry to accept the art ther- apy approach. “A Jot of mental health people operate under a medical model. If it can’t be proven, it’s not valid. But they’re coming around. We’re having more and more referrals,’’ she said. Clients usually participate in the art therapy program for anywhere from six weeks to as long as three years. ‘‘Therapies fike this are dependent on the person's initia- tive. We try to work towards self- acceptance. Quite often some peo- ple will do art and it’s very signifi- cant, but they haven’t clicked in what it means. Sometimes there is a lot of resistance to it. But the art respects the user’s emotional timetable.” For more information contact the institute at 926-9381. SAVE FROM 20 to 40% SIMMONS HIDE-A-BED You want the Best, Buy the Best LOVESEAT SIZES FROM S5G 500 Other models 7Regulargos %695 Queen 1098 = 8795 FREE DELIVERY We take trades. All sizes in stock (Singles, Doubles, Queens) USED HIDE-A-BEDS FROM 1199-4399 53 - Wednesday, November 23, 1988 - Affairs are not worth it PAGE 54 E White Set ‘Complete . North Shore News NEWS photo Tom Burley ART THERAPIST Leslie Fletcher shows a striking example of sculptural art produced during an art therapy session at the Vancouver Art Therapy Institute in West Vancouver. The therapy approach is used to kelp people express, in external form, internal emotional conflict.