Every Monday, Judith Gould arrives at the Mental Health Unit at Providence Care Hospital with art supplies, a theme, and no expectations. Her husband Don often comes too, with their Goldendoodle, a pet therapy dog who helps put people at ease before the session begins.
Gould has facilitated Art & Self-Expression workshops for twelve years, growing out of her career at Kingston General Hospital, where she led mediation and group work across nearly every department. An occupational therapist invited her into the acute mental health unit, and the work evolved from there.
Each session begins with a theme. One favourite is the bridge to recovery: participants picture where they are now, where they would like to be, and who or what might help them get there. From there, Gould says, the only rule is that there are no rules. "You don't have to be an artist to be in the group," she tells participants. "A lot of people say, I haven't done anything since kindergarten. I say, good, that's fine."
After about an hour, the group debriefs, a step Gould considers essential, as people describe what their image says or what they felt while making it, often opening up about things they have not put into words before.
"It's exactly what it says, self-expression," Gould says. "People may not be able to talk about their feelings through words, but through the art, it can come out that way. It's liberating."
She is careful to distinguish the work from art therapy, a clinical practice requiring a master's degree. Her sessions are voluntary and informal, open to anyone willing to sit with a blank page. She has seen the results firsthand, including a young man who had not spoken in weeks breaking his silence after a session, and a withdrawn patient who returned later that day, having changed her clothes, to ask for the drawing she had made.
Gould holds a BFA from York University and a Master of Education from Queen's. She has more recently brought the same approach to Kingston Youth Diversion and continues to produce her own fine art, most recently a one-woman show titled Sky, Land & Water at Kingston Health Sciences Centre.
Now Gould is extending her generosity further, with plans for a bequest to the Community Foundation for Kingston & Area to support art and self-expression programming for other organizations. "I think we need to give back to the communities we live in," she says. "If we're lucky enough to be in that position, it's our role to support people who have a lot more need than I do."
