Veterans Let Slip the Masks of War: Can This Art Therapy Ease PTSD? [DailyBeast.com]

Samantha Sangenito 1/12/1612:00 PM

Service members suffering from PTSD often feel like they’re wearing a mask. Melissa Walker asks them to make one.

Walker, an art therapist and healing arts coordinator with the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center runs an art therapy program in which service members returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD or a traumatic brain injury (TBI) are asked to make papier-mâchÉ masks to express their feelings.

“It’s actually the first art directive they’re introduced to as they come through the program,” Walker told The Daily Beast. “These are service members that sometimes have trouble verbalizing what they’re struggling with and these masks, along with all the artwork [they] create, help to make their invisible wounds visible.”

[For more of this story, written by Samantha Allen, go to http://www.thedailybeast.com/a...e&source=twitter]

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