Grey sky, grey North Shore mountains, bottlegreen inlet waves, blackish Stanley Park trees. The winter view from Coal Harbour, where colour therapist Amanah Triggs lives, displays a dismal palette. Sure, it expresses its own kind of beauty, she admits. But the principles of her discipline, colour therapy, call for brilliant, saturated hues as a mental healing balm—especially during a typical, drizzly, muted Vancouver winter.

“Check out that man carrying that multicolour umbrella,” she told the Straight, pointing at a pedestrian through the window of a seaside coffee shop. “Before you judge it, there’s that moment of ‘Oh!’.…There’s a kind of pure pleasure in just observing the colours around us.”

Triggs, who has practised colour therapy for 18 years, doesn’t want to overcomplicate her practice. She says that colours can make us feel better—it’s that simple. The body is energy. Light is energy. Colour is different frequencies of light. So just paying attention to colour, sliding the concept into our consciousness, she said, can change how we feel.

That’s the most elemental description of colour therapy according to Triggs, who earned her consultant and teaching diploma in colour therapy in the United Kingdom, and is a member of both the International Association of Colour and the Canadian International Confederation of Colourists.

“A dark colour scheme, like we get in Vancouver sometimes, makes our emotions feel sluggish and slow,” she said, also noting that many locals choose to wear blacks, greys, browns, and navys. “When we feel sad, our [energy] frequency drops, so our immune system dips, and we’re vulnerable to cancers and other diseases…”

During a session, Triggs’s patients can expect to talk about why they’ve chosen to see a colour therapist, engage in breathing and relaxation exercises, do some visualization, and be exposed to colour physically, and mentally.

Triggs said that the most uplifting hues are violet, magenta, gold, and white—the fastest-frequency colours at the infrared end of the spectrum. Each colour is a tool for healing.

Red and orange tones, associated with the pelvis, are linked to empowerment and sexuality. Yellow is connected with the centre of the body and mental focus. Green is linked to the heart, and enhances creativity; turquoise to the thymus and endocrine system; and blue to the throat. Violet represents the higher mind and the spirit.

According to Triggs, the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Chinese, and Indians tied colour to sacred expression and medicine. Ayurvedic practitioners saw the chakras as wheels of colour. Now, NASA and the U.S. navy use colour in relation to healing injured officers, according to the New Jersey–based Dinshah Health Society’s Web site.

Triggs speculates that we’ve forgotten the healing power of colour. Most people, she said, are focused on arguments, wars, and human struggles, and have forgotten about our higher selves. To Triggs, it’s a spiritual crisis.

“We need to lighten up about the whole thing,” Triggs said with a smile. “Colour therapy is.…a little mental tune-up, to help balance your life and spark your passions.” Bring colour into your visual life, she said, and you’ll be lifted beyond rehashing your problems.

Her prescription for winter and spring in Vancouver: reds, peaches, and rose hues. Wear reds, magentas, burgundies, and scarlet near achy joints. Buy long red socks, for rheumatic knees.

Just invoke those colours mentally. Don’t you feel better already?