Baking Therapy
Nine months ago I moved to Washington, DC in search of a job in the criminal justice field, which is why I am currently baking full-time for a local cafe. I hope you furrowed your brow at the end of that sentence; if not, re-read it. After weeks upon weeks of networking and writing cover letters, I’ve taken a job search hiatus to throw myself into menu designing and early-morning baking at a struggling coffee shop down the street. It’s in my nature to want to revive things that are broken. Before, the shop was sparsely stocked; the dwindling customer base would came in disappointed to see stale, dry muffins and no desserts. It’s my goal to turn this around. It’s also in my nature, and at times it is a fatal flaw, to put my entire soul into something that ignites my passion and makes me feel I’m making a difference, even if it doesn’t entirely make sense. Maybe the difference I make is only one muffin at a time, but it is gratifying to see my food nourish others and brighten their days as they grab their morning coffee.
Now here’s the real reason I was willing to take a detour on my career track: I believe baking has the power to heal, and some ambitious part of me envisions creating a self-sustaining nonprofit that provides mental health treatment and peer-to-peer support, as well as employment in a bakery, to citizens returning from prison.
In this course, we have talked about the healing powers of yoga, EMDR, and other traditional medical approaches that don’t necessarily fit into the Western “boxes” of psychotherapy. Yoga, for instance, teaches centeredness, self-awareness, spiritual awareness, and bodily awareness. Likewise, baking for others has the power to heal, to demand mental and bodily focus, and to restore the creative senses.
In a Huffington Post article I recently read on the psychological benefits of baking, a professor at Boston University is quoted explaining: “There’s a lot of literature for connection between creative expression and overall wellbeing. Whether it’s painting or it’s making music [or baking], there is a stress relief that people get from having some kind of an outlet and a way to express themselves.” (The brackets were not conveniently added by me, by the way, if that’s what you were thinking!).
One therapist has even created a Culinary Art Therapy program and describes the following benefits:
- Gaining insight into one’s behavior
- Learning about social skills/cues
- Increased awareness about health and nutrition
- Improved communication skills
- Stress management
- Time management
- Increased self-esteem
- Brain development through using the senses
Another nonprofit, The Depressed Cake Shop (take a look — their baked items reflect the name just as you’d expect) works in assisting individuals overcome anxiety and depression. It creates popups of high-quality baked goods around the world as a means of combatting the stigma of mental illness.
Beyond what baking can do for the individual, it can also be a method in restorative justice. Baking can be a means of caring for others. A nonprofit that allows formerly incarcerated people to bake for elderly homes, the homeless, or sick community members, for instance, could create a space where returning citizens give back to their communities in a very positive way. In turn, this boosts their own self-image and allows them to feel the effects of restoring their immediate community.
I’m gradually forging my career path, including considering another degree. But I have a feeling my lessons from baking will never leave me. I’ve never had a job where every day I come home happy and creatively motivated, no matter how tired I am. I think this would be a positive thing to share with returning citizens: change comes with patience and it comes with diligence; we can’t be afraid of the messes we make even when trying to measure ingredients precisely. Baking is about love, thinking of other people; it is creation over destruction, even in just a minor way.
I remember a novel I read as a kid that used this as a metaphor — each baking ingredient, by itself, does not taste very good. Flour is dry, baking soda bitter, buttermilk is sour, and salt is…well, you get the idea. When you look at the ingredients piece by piece, there are far more bitter ones than saccharine. But the finished product is somehow beautiful, sweet, and satisfying. Such is life. Often we have bitter ingredients to work with, but we can try to balance those out and create a product worth putting our names on. Even for those who have lived through serious trauma and insurmountably negative experiences, it doesn’t mean the final products – who we are – have to be the sum of all the bad things.