Making A Difference through Art Therapy

My name is Vu Do, class of 2022, with a double major in Psychology and Visual Art as well as a minor in Education. The company where I completed my funded experiences was at a place called Cape & Islands Cognitive Behavioral Institute where I mainly worked with CIB adults and introduced them to various aspects of Art that I know. 

I was trying to search for an internship that consists of both fields that I am majoring in. I was attempting to further explore the connection between the two fields that I am very passionate about. Gladly, I was very lucky when Cape & Islands Cognitive Behavioral Institute was able to offer me this internship to explore art therapy and the connection between the two. 

Our activities often included playing around with colors instead of going into art theory. There were so many activities that the guys constantly seemed to enjoy. I remember one time we were going around the beach right across from their apartment just looking for seashells to paint on. We came back to the house with a bag full of them and slowly painted them over with water-colors. The most wonderful parts were that the shells were all covered in such different color combinations and laying next to one another made them look like a beautiful painting. 

One of the times that we all had such a wonderful time was when we had these wooden tree houses to paint over. All the adults put on different marks on the house, each illustrated the house with color patterns that distinctively matched with their personality. We all planned to give it out for each staff in the company, so we ended up painting on 8 of them. I still kept a treehouse with me when I got back to college because the house holds on to such marvelous memories that I want to remember forever and I will cherish the opportunity that Wheaton made possible for me.

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