SARASOTA, FL.- Art therapy—not arts and crafts, but truly specialized art therapy—can help Alzheimer’s patients reconnect with their identities and life stories. It can open the floodgates of communication when dementia patients have stopped talking. It can support the recovery of stroke patients as they regain mastery and a sense of control.

A firm called Youthful Aging Home Health Care employs the only certified art therapist in the Sarasota-Manatee area who works with Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. Registered Art Therapist Poppy Scheibel utilizes watercolor, clay, embroidery, mixed media and even origami in order to gain insight into the minds her clients, some of whom are in their 90s.

Scheibel has a master’s degree in art therapy and is accredited by the Art Therapy Credentials Board. She’s president-elect of the Florida Art Therapy Association and a faculty member at Ringling College of Art and Design, where she teaches psychology of the arts.

Youthful Aging, a boutique home health care service dedicated to helping its clients reach their maximum physical and intellectual potential, established its art therapy program in 2006. President and CEO Nicci Kobritz says that an individually tailored art therapy program can impact other aspects of patients’ lives as well as family relationships. “Dementia patients travel and live in a different world. Their art gives them something they can engage in and connect with,” Kobritz says.

One of Scheibel’s clients, a former surgeon, was able to work with clay and sculpting tools to make precise carvings. Another, a strongly maternal woman who derived a sense of purpose from mentoring and teaching, taught Scheibel how to crochet.

“In the Alzheimer’s mind, the person can only keep focus for a few moments. When we get into this creative art process, the flow of the media almost mirrors what we want to create in the cognitive mind. They get his mind-hand connection and they are able to stay focused for longer periods of time. My goal is to stretch that state of cognitive clarity,” Scheibel says.

Youthful Aging Home Health Care was established in Sarasota in 1999 by Ms. Kobritz. The boutique practice serves clients in need of both short-term and long-term, 24/7 home health services. Youthful Aging’s service model, which was developed by Kobritz, is individually tailored to each client to manage chronic health conditions, restore optimum physical and mental dexterity and improve overall quality of life. Youthful Aging’s goal is to enable clients to remain independent in their homes and to do for themselves.

The company is headquartered at 7220 Beneva Rd, Sarasota FL 34238. nkobritz@youthfulaging.net. Telephone 941/685-9532.