For Eric Dean Spruth, the creative process is also a way to help troubled youth and adults redirect their lives.
A south suburban native, he’s accomplished that regularly for the past 33 years as an art therapist with the Cook County Bureau of Health, both with Mental Health Services/Cermak Health Services and the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center.
He’s helped clients in group poetry sessions, music therapy, horticulture therapy gardens “fostering life.” He’s participated in a mural program with “huge walls of color,” and trekking a replica of a labyrinth at the Chartres Cathedral in France — a 65-foot walking meditation labyrinth.
Spruth spent part of his childhood in Oak Lawn and Worth before moving to Chicago, and his dad still lives in their family home in Oak Lawn. A single dad, Spruth has two adopted children, Drake, 17, and Isis, 18.
“Within my given profession of art therapy I have experienced the great effects of seeing my clients have their own unique creative epiphanies again and again,” said Spruth. “It’s my job to design programs that meet the unique needs of individuals, making use of building a psychotherapeutic relationship with my clients, offering and modeling the use of materials that enrich their lives, helping to enlighten and reignite the light within.”
He said the therapy helped youth develop self-awareness as they explored their emotions and unresolved conflicts, as well as improve their reactions to life and school skills.
He refers to his Juvenile Temporary Detention Center clients as “residents,” though he said others might call them “inmates.” He praised his many colleagues who have worked at his various jobs, too.
Art also helped Spruth move forward earlier in his life when he was stuck.
He had a learning disability and was separated from his peers in high school. But once he got to Moraine Valley Community College, the late Irene Brodie in the Learning Disability Support Services Program and Adreian Welzien, his Department of Human Services counselor, realized he had severe dyslexia with a memory impairment and behaviors on the autism spectrum.
Recorded books were a lifesaver for him, along with tutors, test proctors, note takers and untimed testing. He ended up flourishing at the college in Palos Hills, obtaining an Associate in Fine Arts degree focusing on World Religions.
“Everybody learns differently and that includes not just the style of learning but recognizing the mechanics of our brain, body and I would argue spirit. There are auditory learners, visual learners, and learners who are well read,” Spruth said. “I can read, however when I read it’s more outward and less inward. When I listen to a book, I’m listening to it actively and my brain is able to internalize it with great success.”
Spruth also got hooked on art therapy while at the college, and began to volunteer at the former Tinley Park Mental Health Center doing various creative programs and during an internship at the Garden Center Services for the handicapped in Burbank.
His love of art started when he was very young and his uncle gave him a calligraphy pen and taught him the art form. Spruth said his uncle and others praised his newfound skill.
“Art saved me and I learned how to support others’ wellness at Tinley Park,” he said.
Spruth also trained at Magic University as a bedside magician. His grandmother taught him to do magic and he found it opened up his mind to possibilities.
“A lot of times we get stuck on what we don’t think is possible,” he said.
He also started and runs a nonprofit called Sacred Transformations that features Tattoo Art Therapy as a way of helping people with scars, burns or “life experiences that have left the individual burnt.” His clients are referred by social service agencies and the FBI and include former gang members, survivors of sex trafficking and people who have self-harmed. He’s a certified laser removal technician and, with other volunteers, removes or transforms the tattoos into custom works of art free of charge.
“People make a mark in their lives and they spend their whole life trying to erase it,” he said.
Spruth is also working on another degree in education at Liberty University online.
Patricia Joan “Trish” Murphy, Moraine Valley Community College Board vice chair and Worth Township supervisor, has known Spruth for more than 30 years and continues to be in awe of his accomplishments. When Spruth was organizing Sacred Transformations, he asked Murphy to be on the organization’s board, and she accepted.
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“Instead of using his disabilities as an excuse, Eric has turned them into his super power,” said Murphy. “Eric may not know what day it is, but he gets more done in one day than anyone I have ever met.”
Spruth also goes out of his way to help people others might shy away from, she said.
“He believes people go through things in life, but deserve a second chance,” she said. “Sometimes you just need someone to believe in you.”
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.