Saturday (29/5) Faculty of Psychology UGM held a webinar with the title “Cath-Art-Sis: Releasing Your Stress Through Art”. This event is a collaboration between the Faculty of Psychology UGM and Cathartsis, a community of UGM Master of Professional Psychology students that focuses on the issue of student mental health.
This event will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. This event was attended by 26 UGM Psychology Undergraduate students.
The speaker at this event was Zahwa Islami, S.Psi., a 2020 Masters student in Professional Psychology UGM who is also active as a public speaker and motivator. She received several achievements during his college years, one of which was the 2018 UGM Psychology Achievement Student.
Selengkapnya tentang teks sumber iniDiperlukan teks sumber untuk mendapatkan informasi terjemahan tambahanAt this event, Zahwa gave material to participants about the mental health of students in undergoing online lectures in the pandemic era. Not only that, Zahwa also invited the participants to understand and practice catharsis as stress coping by using art media.
The presentation material at this event is divided into four main topics of discussion. The first is the stress of online lectures. After understanding the root of the problem, Zahwa explained what coping strategies can be done to manage stress. The last two discussions are catharsis and the relationship of catharsis to art.
Zahwa explained that in conducting online lectures, students encountered several new situations that could trigger stress. Students feel negative feelings such as loneliness, panic, irritability, anxiety, symptoms of depression, feeling helpless and difficult to concentrate.
Excessive use of social media due to boredom with routine also causes mental fatigue. When in that situation students get assignments, they perceive it as a threat from their comfort zone. This makes students often avoid or delay assignments.
“Actually, it’s a natural thing, but we have to manage its existence,” said Zahwa.
Continuing her explanation on coping with stress, Zahwa divides it into two. The first is problem-focused coping, which is a strategy to solve the problem first and the second is emotion-focused coping, which is to relieve emotional outbursts first and then return to the core of the problem to be solved. These two strategies are inseparable and must be done to manage stress.
The accumulated stress can come in various forms. Zahwa explained that it should be identifiable. There is stress that makes us grow and produce something, but there is also stress that makes us stagnant or even destructive to ourselves or others.
“So here catharsis and art can be our way to manage stress from input to output,” explained Zahwa.
In the catharsis explanation session, Zahwa gave an example from the story of Vincent Van Gogh, a post-impressionist painter who experienced a psychotic disorder. When he was alone and lonely, Van Gogh expressed what he felt through the paintings he made. Painting for Van Gogh is a cathartic medium to overcome his feelings of loneliness.
“It was part of his lonely catharsis. Van Gogh tries to reduce the psychological disturbance of his loneliness by expressing negative emotions or feelings that are felt (by painting),” said Zahwa.
Zahwa further explained that basically catharsis uses a method where we can manage aggressive impulses, emotions, feelings of discomfort within us. In catharsis we are required to restore our childhood soul, which is spontaneous and free to do what we like.
“There is no good or bad there, and we focus on the process, not the result,” said Zahwa.
In the last session, the event committee gave 20 minutes for the participants to do a catharsis through the art media that had been prepared by each participant. Some draw, paint, make origami, and compose songs with piano instruments.
This event went smoothly. The committee also gave prizes to some lucky participants. The committee hopes that this event can provide insight for participants to be more concerned with their mental health by introducing catharsis as a method to manage stress.