Career Corner

Color therapy fills the holes in mental health

Ashley Fredrickson

Visualize walking into school everyday to gray walls, gray tile floors, gray desks, gray lockers, and dim lighting. Would this affect one’s mood or attitude towards their learning environment?

Now imagine the world in black and white. Although the thought of it seems intriguing, the lack of color would eventually change one’s emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical health.

And probably not for the better according to color therapists, who use color to balance out the energy that the patients’ minds are lacking. “I believe that we originate from nature, and nature is full of color, and since our bodies vibrate on color we cannot survive without it,” said Color Therapist Patty Rotert.

Color therapists use gemstones, prisms, colored lights, candles, fabrics, eyewear, and baths to determine what colors attract their patients and which turn the patients off.

They use these methods to help understand why certain colors bring positive vibes to the patient and certain colors bring negative vibes to the patient. The patient’s attraction to certain colors indicates the areas in life where there is imbalance. “Our clients pick the colors from the area that they need the healing, since different colors represent different emotions, for example, operating rooms have green lighting because green is a soothing color,” said Rotert.

Color therapy began in ancient Egypt, and also has connections with Atlantean teachings. Since it is not exactly medical, color therapy is practiced by alternative health practitioners like Rotert, who practices color therapy at Midlands Massage Therapy.

A typical color therapy session begins with the specialist matching the disease or illness with a particular color, since every human disease has a corresponding color. Then, during the session, one of the 12 Spectro-Chrome colors are chosen and shone on the patient with a lamp for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

Patients who come to color therapists are there for anything from headaches to their love life. “The possibility of healing is there for any type of illness our clients might have,” said Rotert.

It looks as though Color Therapy may soon be a popular option for healing. “It’s very effective, more and more people are looking towards it for alternative healing because it works at a spiritual level, not just medical,” said Rotert.