One paints the stories they're told, another reads the paintings they empower; both help people talk about their medical conditions with care and attention.

Charmaine Wheatley is an award winning visual artist who specializes in interpretive watercolor painting sessions with those living with a sexually transmitted disease or a mental disorder to help humanize their medical condition.

Sheilagh McGreal is a licensed art therapist trained to work with her patients, to understand their replies and evaluate their art to give them clarity on issues they go through, providing a sense of catharsis to the patient.

The methods and objectives of these two differ more than one might think, yet both play a positive role in the recovery of people living with these medical conditions.

Wheatley's portrait work involves hour-long sessions where the subject explains details from their personal life. She interprets this information through watercolor; painting the subject's portrait and surrounding it with snippets of their conversation.

Wheatley does this to represent those living with a mental illness or HIV as people rather than statistics. She explained her process as: "I'm looking at people for their individuality. With each of these communities, it might be under the umbrella of mental health or HIV, but when you look and spend time with the work, you realize that they're individual people."

On Nov. 18, Wheatley's portraits were displayed at an art exhibition at Rochester's Trillium Health Center. Dozens of past clients and colleagues were in attendance, many of whom saw themselves displayed under lights on the gallery wall. Crowd reaction was overwhelmingly positive as they each had their lives immortalized in paint for the world to see.

While Wheatley works carefully to tell stories of people living with mental and physical illnesses, art therapists, who also use art in a healing sense, are concerned about potential unintended side-effects.

Sheilagh McGreal, a licensed art therapist explained some of the risks of working with art in a therapeutic sense over an email interview: "With Art Therapy there may be a great deal of symbolism that has the potential to open up wounds as well as create potential cathartic responses," explained McGreal. "So, it's important to approach it with great sensitivity due to the intimacy and vulnerability involved."

She compared Wheatley's work to her own, explaining: "While [Wheatley] likely brought therapeutic value to her time sitting with people and then putting it to her own art- it is not actual Art Therapy. This is something that Art Therapists face quite often and work hard to help the public understand differences as well as helping guide people to trained individuals."

Kevin Markman, another licensed art therapist, also made the distinction between art therapy and healing through art.

He suggested that, "You could have a person regressing because they're using wet material and they're schizophrenic, so if you're not a trained art therapist you're doing more harm than you are good." Markman stated that the role of art in therapy as being "psychodynamic, based on Freudian internal functions."

Q: What are the qualifications of an art therapist?

A: "Nationally and internationally it requires a master's level credential." Art therapists must be trained in "assessment, analysis, and expression," alongside training in multiple art mediums. In addition, they must train in the use of multiple art mediums, such as paint, clay, and dry materials.

Q: What does the therapist look for during an art therapy session?

A: They need to look out for signs present in their patients so that they can "figure out what they need to do to be able to help themselves and their life." The art therapist is also looking for progression in their patients, "like more confidence or more expression with the materials or with their words."

Q: What difference do different materials make in an art therapy session?

A: "[wet materials] can be emotionally triggering but also more emotionally expressive because you can get through emotional material much faster with it." The use of wet material may provide this benefit, but its higher level of expression can also work to the detriment of the patient: "You can also regress that much quicker with wet materials because if you start pounding on clay then you start feeling that tension, that anger, that frustration, that sadness. It all starts flooding out."

Q: What type of people stand to benefit from art therapy?

A: Simply put: "Everyone can benefit from art therapy." Groups in particular can highly benefit from art therapy, as "people connect nonverbally through the mediums and through the art and through the materials in a way where you don't connect verbally."

Q: Who keeps the art after it is made?

A: "The client keeps their art no matter what." When the patient produces art in an art therapy session, the legal nature of their art changes. "[Their art] is a HIPAA compliant document of their work, just like a written form would be."

Wheatley disagreed with Markman and McGreal's interpretation of her work.

Wheatley clarified over email that her work as a visual artist is entirely separate from art therapy.

"I don't have a goal other than reaching an honest representation of a person in a particular moment and time."

She added: "As an artist, the intention is different with my portraits than any sort of art therapy exercise. We're doing a portrait FIRST and foremost, That secondly ends up having positive effects because of the process."

Wheatley elaborated on how each session was set-up by pointing out that: "I do not want to sit with anyone who feels, even in the slightest way, unsure about sitting with me for a portrait."

"I've done hundreds of portraits and know my practice pretty well," stated Wheatley, "it's it's own thing... not trying to be any other thing."

Despite any concerns raised by art therapists, good will towards Wheatley's efforts aren't exclusive to her and her patients. Dr. Laurence Guttmacher is a clinical professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at the University of Rochester Medical Center and he's recommended several patients participate in Wheatley's portrait work.

"Her work is marvelous," stated Guttmacher, "I brought several of the patients I worked with over to be drawn by Charmaine and they thoroughly enjoyed her wonderful acceptance."

Stephen Dewhurst, Ph.D. is an HIV researcher and professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Rochester Medical center and he had been closely involved in hosting Wheatley there.

"Its not about having persons living with health diagnoses create art, as a path to personal healing," stated Dewhurst, "Its about humanizing those individuals, through Charmaine's portraits, so as to destigmatize the diagnoses they live with."

In any case, art can certainly play particularly potent roles in psychological healing.

Markman agreed: "Art is therapeutic for anybody."

McGreal concurred: "Part of the therapeutic value is them being able to tell their story and then she translates it to, 'Hey, look at this person,' and that can be really therapeutic."

Whether through true art therapy or through alternate artistic avenues, many stand to benefit from the healing touch of a paintbrush.

(Originally written 11/29/19; Posted 12/6/19)