Daily Times

Karen Pence, the US vice president’s wife, announced Tuesday a $54,000 US grant to a teacher at Tsukuba University in Japan for the study of art therapy, a little-known mental health profession she has championed under the Trump administration.

Pence was in Japan while accompanying her husband, Mike Pence, on a trip through Asia for a series of meetings, including a Southeast Asian summit in Singapore and an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Papua New Guinea.

Karen Pence declined to answer questions during an interview with The Associated Press about opposition in Japan to the presence of the US military and about the recent US midterm elections that saw her husband’s Republican Party lose control of the House of Representatives. Instead, the focus was on art therapy, which uses craft work to help people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, autism or other mental illnesses, as well as children with cancer.

“When we go all over the world and observe art therapy, it’s used frequently with people who are having some kind of depression, or stress or trauma, anxiety, anger issues,” Pence said in the interview while attending a meeting with art therapists and other guests at the US ambassador’s residence in Tokyo.

Art therapy has also been reported as effective for people in the military dealing with suicidal thoughts, depression and nightmares. In Japan, it has also been used for hospitalized children and women experiencing domestic abuse.

Published in Daily Times, November 14^th 2018.