What if you were a tree?
What if you were a tree?
What would you look like? Would your roots be deep? Shallow? Wide? Straight down? What is the texture of your trunk? What are your leaves like? Are they evergreen or do they change with the seasons? What kind of ground are you growing in? Are your branches few or many? Do they reach for the sky, or branch out with many forks? Are your branches home to birds and animals?
Humans are creatures made of stories - it’s how we make sense of the world and of ourselves. We use all kinds of metaphors to communicate our experiences. I slept like a log. I’m feeling kind of batty. They’re keeping on the straight and narrow. It’s raining cats and dogs.
One of the fun things about art therapy is the ability to explore some of our stories and metaphors in a visual way. We can see parts of ourselves on the page in front of us - and this is powerful, because it creates a sense of space and separation (this part of me is out there so I can see it), and also a sense of containment (this part of me is held by the page - the borders of the paper contain this part of me).
Art therapy and visual expression of our metaphors and stories also gives us the power to change them. We’re in control of what goes on the paper. If our tree looks like it needs watering - we can add water or draw our leaves in a brighter green. And as we see our metaphor change on the page in front of us, it also begins to create change inside of us.
There are lots of ways this might occur. A different perspective, or a new insight we hadn’t seen before. A greater sense of agency and ability to influence how our life goes. Shifts in our identity and who we know ourselves to be.
And, as always, the therapeutic benefits of doing creative work with your hands - feeling calmer, more peaceful, more present.
If you’d like to give this a try for yourself, perhaps you’d like to come along to the next online therapeutic art group - these friendly drop in groups are a great space to try out something new each time with like minded folk. Our next group we’ll be creating the tree of our lives.
We’d love to see you there - click here to find out more and book your spot.