By Lizz Panchyk
Adelphi offers a range of classes and with registration for the next semester occurring, now is the perfect time to add some variety into your schedule. One class that students can take is Healing and the Arts, taught by professor Danny Costello.
This arts class, while listed as a nursing class, is available to all majors. According to the course summary, “This course examines the role of the arts both as historical chroniclers and social commentators about healing and healing systems. The therapeutic use of music, dance, art, and drama to diagnose and heal is also explored. Examples are drawn from folk art and from contemporary art forms.”
This welcoming class allows students to open their minds further for themselves. According to Costello, it helps us better understand our minds and our hearts in a way that is loving. “It’s unique in the sense that it gives people a chance to know that they can control their life and their minds,” Costello said.
Costello attended Marist College for his BA in social work and then went to Columbia University to continue that journey in social work. He’s worked at a Veterans Administration hospital as well as started his own private practice as a psychotherapist. Five years ago, he was given the opportunity to take over this class as an adjunct professor. Since then he has been driven to integrate more energetic healing opportunities into Adelphi’s curriculum.
“I have been getting many requests to implement a part two to Healing and the Arts,” he said. “I have presented the idea of a class called ‘The Art of True Wellness’ to the executive staff and the School of Nursing and am awaiting further support and discussion as to its place in the healthcare and SELF-care modernization prompted by the president’s Momentum 2 action plan. This wonderful addition will address the growing popularity of the mindfulness protocol already begun at Adelphi by several forward thinking professors and healthcare providers.”
Junior Madison Castelli, who took the class in spring 2022, said, “We had a bunch of different guest speakers come in and do different things with us like art therapy, reiki, aura reading and crystal therapy. We also found our animal totems and went outside to do meditation in nature.”
When asked what students can take away from this class, Costello said, “themselves, the higher self, the part of them that is always loving and always has joy. And they can choose that, once they get used to the energy of it.”
Healing and the Arts is being offered for two different times next semester, fall 2024: Friday, noon to 2:30 pm and 2:30 pm to 5 pm. This is a great opportunity to take so that you may learn more about your spiritual and self healing.
“My biggest takeaway would probably be just how many different ways there are to heal and how important it is to find inner healing before going to help others find theirs,” Castelli said.
Costello added, “[Students] should take this class because it will help them and everybody else around them by raising their vibration and becoming more self loving. Overall I truly think that Adelphi is a great place for this curriculum because of its focus on diversity tolerance and the gifts of support given by our wonderful staff. The beauty of the campus is also a perfect place to teach the tools that unlock joy in its most evident expression.”