When she first learned about the Connecticut school tragedy, Mimi Sinclair did what she always does when confronted with difficult or traumatic situations — she listened to a soothing piece of beautiful music.

In this case, it was Elgar’s “Enigma Variations.”

“It’s calm and peaceful with a hint of melancholy,” says the Cincinnati-based music therapist who is on the faculty of both the University of Dayton and the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music Preparatory Department. “I listened to it and then posted it on Facebook with the hope that it would bring others a sense of peace as it had for me.”

Music, says Sinclair, can express things that words cannot.

“There was no way to fully express the grief that I was feeling for those families,” she says. “The music said it for me.”

Whether it’s a senior citizen facing the move to a nursing home, a child dealing with the death of a parent or a cancer patient going through treatment, the arts can be nurturing.

Sinclair, a board-certified music therapist who works with clients ranging from autistic children to military families, says it’s really about using the arts to express feelings. She wasn’t surprised that “Saturday Night Live” opened their TV program with music following the Sandy Hook massacres.

“They had a children’s choir singing ‘Silent Night’ a cappella,” Sinclair says. “The purity of the sound of children singing ‘sleep in heavenly peace’ was like a lullaby. It was a way of sending a message from ‘Saturday Night Live’ to the rest of the country, a way to express our pain, healing and search for peace.”

Sinclair says that’s what music therapists do every day — allow people to express their feelings through music and then move forward.

In her Hospice work, Sinclair says the goal is to ease the pain for dying patients and comfort them as they transition.

“It’s also an opportunity for the families to share music with their loved ones,” she says. “We will come in and offer to play or sing with them. And we ask is there is some special music that would be meaningful for them.”

In music therapy, she explains, there are two tracks for managing pain.

“One is distraction from the pain because as you engage in the music you aren’t thinking about the pain. The other way is to use music to help focus on relaxation and relieving pain — to use the mind to imagine the pain disappearing. We use music to slow down your breathing and help you relax your muscles.”

Centerville couple uses art

Art projects can also prove therapeutic. Just ask Jerry and Patty Woodbury of Centerville. In the fall of 2011 Jerry was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Last summer the couple got hooked up with the Cancer Support Community Western Ohio.

“They are such an asset to us, not only with their support group meetings, educational and nutritional programs but also through their art expression,” says Patty. “Some of the projects that we have done include planting a terrarium, scrap booking, homemade Christmas cards, creating unique picture frames and making a variety of jewelry.”

Jerry, who is 56, admits he was reluctant at first to try his hand at things he’d never done before. But he decided to give them a try.

“While going through all of the doctor appointments and radiation treatments, it’s really hard to find things to keep your mind busy,” he says. “With the stress and worry of the disease we have found that for one evening we have a distraction. And, doing these projects, we are rewarded not only a finished product but new skills.

The couple enjoyed the art sessions so much that a couple of weeks ago they signed up for a glass-blowing class in Cincinnati where they created glass Christmas ornaments.

“The art has made us open and one thing has led to another,” Patty says, who says it’s all had a ripple effect.

“What we’ve found is that it’s also about the other people, the instructors, the diversions of learning something new,” Jerry says. “It doesn’t take away the cancer, but it does give you something else to focus on.”

No art skills needed

Linda Uebel, who directs the program for the Cancer Support Community, says in order to be successful an expressive arts program activity must be fun and engaging but be simple enough so that people who do not consider themselves to be artistic can participate successfully rather than feeling increased stress.

“Often people feel isolated throughout their cancer journey, and caregivers or support persons feel equally uncertain about how best to help them,” she says. “These programs offer opportunities for them to share a fun, creative activity that is not focused on cancer, which most often results in lower stress levels and more relaxed communications between the person with the diagnosis and their caregiver. It also offers caregivers a much-needed social connection to other caregivers in a relaxed setting.”

Although the programs usually result in a “finished” project, Uebel says, the true psychosocial value lies in the process that occurs during the project-making — laughter, fun, helping each other with the various parts of the project, encouragement, enhanced feelings of normalcy and the sharing of social and family information among participants.

Rick H. Jones, executive director of the Fitton Center for Creative Arts in Hamilton, agrees that healing through art is mostly about the process of manipulating the materials, even for those who aren’t necessarily good at it.

“As they work through that process, it opens up avenues of the mind that are not open by words,” says Jones. “It’s the inherent nature of the arts, we refer to them as the intrinsic benefits of the arts.”

For a cancer patient going through chemo and radiation, for example, he says a well-trained and sensitive instructor can help students learn about the watercolor and the painting process and help them be more sensitive to the kinds of feelings they’re experiencing as they work with that particular medium.

Jones, whose center offers a variety of art experiences for those of all ages and abilities, says a growing number of hospitals are offering arts and wellness programs. The Fitton Center, for example, has been collaborating with Fort Hamilton Hospital to build lines of communication and develop pathways for future collaboration.

“One of the things I hope is that there is an arts organization in Connecticut that can step forward and offer to help family members discover ways to heal in arts and music,” he says. “It has been shown by the new type of MRI — the Functional MRI — that there are changes that go on in the brain when a person is playing music or participating in making some form of art. It fires different parts of the brain. They’re just skimming the surface of what they may uncover.”

Gretchen Miller, a Cleveland registered and board-certified art therapist, has worked in the field for 15 years in a variety of settings.

Empowerment

“We empower clients to express their feelings, memories, experiences and thoughts in order to learn more about themselves or strengthen their coping,” she says. “The art can give voice to your experiences.”

She says a lot of the children she works with have fears — difficulty sleeping, for example.

“Art can be very stabilizing and comforting and provides structure and safely,” she says. “It’s not about the product, it’s about what you are creating within. When you put things on paper that are anxiety-provoking or difficult, it helps give you control. You’re not keeping it inside or stuffing it, you’re externalizing it in a safe way.”

Parents should remember to be nonjudgemental with the results, she says. The time to call in a professional is when the art is causing emotional responses that seems too much to manage. That’s when an art therapist, she says, can be of help.

Miller recommends doing art and being creative in general.

“Whether it’s music, dance, writing or visual art, it’s a healthy activity to engage in for everyone.”