Positive Mental Health? Use Your Body

When it comes to facing struggles with mental health, we are discovering that …

Yoga can help.

Dancing can help.

Aerobic exercise can help.

Scientific research is recognizing and supporting the meaning and role that these activities can play as mind-body interventions to improve mental health and foster resilience.

These types of interventions can help:

• Shrink the care gap:

  • We can alleviate the disproportionate impact of mental health challenges for youth from historically marginalized and excluded ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.

• Assist the “Creator Economy”

  • Provide meaningful work for skilled teaching artists with appropriate training and qualifications.

• Preventative Care

  • Give individuals tools to reduce stress, depression, and anxiety that can be leveraged any time, anywhere.

The Catch

There isn't sufficient funding for research on mind-body interventions, which results in a small evidence base that leads to a cycle of not leveraging these options in the mental healthcare toolkit. Without awareness from mental health workers serving our communities, they can’t prescribe something that they don’t know exists.

Moreover, the lack of research funding to support the efficacy of these interventions has other economic side-effects, namely a lack of licensure for arts therapists in states like Michigan and New York.

So What Can We Do?

• Scientists:

  • “…advocate for this and similar legislation by meeting with policymakers and writing policy memos integrating research findings…” (Rouzer et al., 2023)*

  • We can do this by getting licensure for art therapists starting with New York state:

    • Ask Governor Kathy Hochul of New York to sign A9018/S8715 into law! (Click here).

• Care-Givers & Mental Health Specialists:

  • Find practitioners by reaching out to organizations like:

    The American Association of Art Therapy

    The American Dance Therapy Association

• Individuals:

  • Seek out professional help

    • The American Psychological Association (Psychologist Locator)

  • Check out our “Guided Exercise” Playlist on YouTube for micro-level interventions

^{**Disclaimer: this is not medical advice.}

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