What is Color Therapy
Color therapy, also known as chromotherapy is a therapy which uses colors to help reduce different mental and physical health conditions. Many mistake color therapy with color psychology which is when human behavior and perception are influenced. However, color therapy is rather a form in which it helps impact people’s “‘energy’ and health outcomes” rather than just their mental conditions (Ohwovoriole, 2023). This form of therapy has been used for over thousands of years, but recently it has been gaining more popularity although it is still not a widely accepted form of therapy due to the lack of research performed on it.
This therapy has originated from multiple parts of the world such as Egypt, Greece, India, and China. A lot of these cultures focus on “ayurvedic medicine” such as yoga, massage, acupuncture, and herbal medicine as well as “understanding the healing properties of colors” (Brognano, 2022). For instance, a lot of houses were painted in order to help influence different energies and moods.
Furthermore, color therapy is believed to impact a person’s body in numerous different ways allowing a person to feel better simply with the therapy of contrasting colors. Each color can help with different emotions and have different health outcomes.
For instance:
Red: This color can help to energize some people by stimulating their lymphatic system which is where the tissue and organs “produce, store, and carry white blood cells that fight infections and other diseases” (cancer.gov). This color will mainly help people who are feeling tired or down. However, there are still negatives to this color as for certain people it can trigger aggression and lead to more tension.
Orange: The color orange can help to create happiness and warmth within people. It has been found that orange provoke feelings of appetite and more mental activity.
Yellow: This color can help to improve your mood and similar to orange it usually creates a sense of happiness and optimism within people leading them to become a more cheerful person especially in times of struggles.
Green: This color can help people to feel at ease and it can also lead people to growth. People usually associate green with nature such as trees and plants so it leaves people with a fresh feeling and a feeling of motivation for growth.
Blue: It has been found that the color blue can help people to become sleepier for people struggling with insomnia and similar sleeping disorders. Also, experts say that it can “help a person to feel more focused” (Brognano, 2022). However, this color can also be used as a “sedative” and influence feelings of depression for some patients.
How Color Therapy Helps
Color therapy has been found to help in numerous ways. It can be helpful in mainly the treatment of “anxiety, depression, seasonal affective disorder, sleep disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and postpartum depression” (Brognano, 2022). However, it does not only help with specific mental health issues, it can also help to “positively impact academic performances” as it can help with concentration and assist with “aggressive/hostile behavior” leading color therapy to be open to use for any issues a person may have.
Not to mention, color therapy does not merely help children and adults, it can help babies as well. It was found that the blue light therapy is commonly used to help neonatal jaundice which is a yellowish discoloration found within newborns, leading them to have high levels of bilirubin in their blood. In this treatment, babies are placed under blue halogen or fluorescent lamps which help them to fight the discoloration.
To conclude, although color therapy is not widely used as of now, it is a therapy that is worth using as there are a lot of benefits with minimal side effects. In the Duchenne Smile Project, we believe color therapy is a vital part of this project as we believe that the different colored flowers one receives can truly create a difference especially in helping to improve one’s mood and find hope.
Comments