By Jack Brittle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
On July 29, the Capillary Wave men’s mental health group held their inaugural “Field Trip” at Beyond Pottery, located at 3328 South Service Rd.
Six members of the group gathered at the pottery business to engage in some “art therapy.”
Nelson Borges, the founder of Capillary Wave, said the idea came about as a way to break up the monotony of the twice-weekly meetings.
“We’re always in the same room on Mondays talking about the same things,” Borges said. “I always like changing it up and introducing new things to the group.”
Borges said he brought his wife to Beyond Pottery on Valentine’s Day this year and it inspired him to choose it as the first spot.
“When I was there, I was just so into it,” Borges said. “[When you’re doing it] everything’s gone, you’re just focused on creating something. It was so therapeutic.”
After the men arrived, two of the owners of the studio provided them with a demonstration of the process of working with clay. Each participant was given three balls of clay to work with, allowing them multiple attempts at creating pieces.
Lauren Sinett and Shahrzad Amin, two of the business’ owners and instructors also coached the attendees throughout the process, travelling from wheel to wheel, offering advice on technique.
Yvette Garcia, the other of the three owners, said that each person should have a hobby that can engross and relax them.
“I feel everybody needs something,” Garcia said. “Whether it is clay, woodworking, walking, jogging, gardening or whatever it is.”
Borges said that he feels that there are many parallels between making art and mental health.
“It’s kind of ironic and poetic at the same time that we’re doing something that’s always changing shape,” Borges said. “And you can relate that to mental health and doing positive things that will always change the shape of your thoughts and stuff like that.”
Borges has reached out to other businesses in Burlington as well for future field trips, including a glass-blowing studio, a woodworking shop, a chocolatier, and an F1 simulator.
Capillary Wave currently has almost 80 members and is holding meetings twice a week, on Monday and Tuesday.
Borges says he has noticed a connection between some of the longest-tenured members.
“[The men that have been here] since January, the ones that have been with us the longest, you can feel that the bond is stronger,” Borges said.
Joseph Castelluccio, a member of Capillary Wave, said that he found the group after he entered a depression after losing his job.
“Like the girls who were demonstrating said, ‘You think it’s easy, but it’s not,’” Castelluccio said. “It takes time, it takes patience. It’s kind of symbolic of life. You can think something’s going to be easy or a period of life is going to be great, [but then it] throws you a curveball to see how resilient you can be.”
Castelluccio said that he stopped while he was ahead when referring to the pottery that he made.
“I wanted to stop before it got misshapen again, so I was keeping an eye on the instructor to help me finish it off,” he said with a laugh.
Castelluccio also said he likes the idea of doing more field trips with the group.
“It changes things up, right?” he asked rhetorically. “We do talk and new guys come in and we have two hours at the rec centre, but it’s nice to do something different.”
Sinett, who is also a licensed social worker, said that she has been trying to combine the worlds of art and therapy ever since they helped her as a young adult.
“I found that it’s been actually challenging in the mental health world and in the social world to kind of get the respect and the space to do what you want as an artist in the medical model,” Sinett said.
Despite the difficulty, Sinett said that the opportunities to merge the two things have actually been coming to her, not the other way around.
Burlington Pottery has collaborated with ROCK (Reach Out Centre For Kids) as well as SMILE Therapy for Kids, offering their space and expertise as a therapeutic modality.
“You have limitations with it,” Sinett said. “It teaches you to be patient and flexible.”
Sinett said that sometimes to improve your mental health you need to do something physical.
“We can sit and do talk therapy on and on and on, but sometimes it’s not helpful for some people,” Sinett said. “Sometimes people need to be in their body, and sometimes things start to click when we ‘do,’ versus sit in our mind.”
Beyond Pottery’s next drop-in is on August 3 at 10:30 a.m.
To find out more about Beyond Pottery and Capillary Wave, visit www.beyondpottery.ca and capillary-wave-community.org respectively.
