What if you were a tree?

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.

Art therapy is a great way to explore, understand and change our metaphors and stories. Read on for more…

Reflecting on your past self, present self, and future self is a powerful practice that has many benefits, including insight into your personal growth over time, making more informed choices in your life, and ultimately, it can lead to a more satisfying and fulfilling life.

Read on for more!

Want to know a (not very) secret about our bodies? They’re only ever in the present moment. So when we engage in a creative activity with our hands, the act of drawing or gardening or cooking or knitting draws us into the present. This is part of why creative activities are so good for our wellbeing.

[the mandala drawing above was created by my friend and art therapist colleague who is running the online therapeutic art group with me - mandalas don’t have to be symmetrical!]

How does it feel to have the power to make something that wasn’t there before? To create something from nothing? A blank page now covered in colours.

We do it all day long. The meals we cook, the photos we take with our phones, the way we dress and do our makeup, the gardens we grow, the art we make. Creating things that weren’t there before.

Mostly, we take it for granted (I know I do).

But sometimes, every now and then, I realise that the drawing I’ve just done, or the meal I’ve just cooked - that’s an act of magic making…

Having a regular creative practice can help you live better.

How?

It’s related to the idea that how we do one thing is how we do everything - we tend to have ways of thinking and feeling and moving through the world that are similar, no matter the circumstances we’re finding ourselves in.

Read on for more, and some examples.

Making stuff makes you feel better.

There’s something a bit magic about starting with nothing and ending up with something that wasn’t there before. Aside from the end result, there’s also something a bit magic about what happens when we’re engaged in the process of creating. The ‘doing’ bit.

If you see yourself as a creative person, you might know this already.

But if you don’t see yourself as creative, or you feel intimidated by the thought of starting to draw or crochet or restore furniture or whatever idea is trying to get your attention, making stuff can feel like a hard mountain to climb.

Have you ever tried drawing a mandala? Mandalas have become known as beautiful symmetrical circular patterns, but that’s just one expression of them. Mandala means ‘circle’ in sanskrit - so really any drawing in a circle could be a mandala.

The medicine wheel is a circle. The full moon. The yin-yang. These are all examples of circles that hold so much meaning.

So when we’re drawing our own mandalas, the circle can hold our meaning, too. Our stories. Our feelings and experiences and fears and curiosities. Our expression of who we are.

There’s something magic that tends to happen when you create with others - often, the positive effects are amplified, because you’re not just doing something creative, you’re also part of something creative.

So here’s your gentle encouragement to find a friend or several friends and spend some creative time with them. Read on for more ideas…

Colouring in is good for your brain. Here’s a few reasons why you might want to give it a try, particularly if you’re like me and find that other kinds of meditation are more frustrating than helpful!

So, why art therapy? I’m glad you asked (she says, pretending that you did). Here are a few ways that art therapy can be a very enriching thing to engage in.

There is a way for change to be a bit easier without us having to ‘effort harder’.

What if instead of trying to change our identity and our behaviour at the same time, we changed our external world so it’s easier to do the thing than it is to not do the thing?

Kind of like we’re the river – we’re going to run down the path of least resistance.

How do you change the river? Shift the banks that guide it.

What’s it like to work with me?

This is a question I get a bit, given all the different things I offer, so here’s an idea of the different things we might focus on together if you were a client of mine.

What’s the difference between art therapy and using art as therapy? Is there a difference?

Short answer - yes! There is some overlap, but they are different things.

Read on for more…

Here’s an art therapy exercise you might like to try - a body map.

A body map is good as a check in – it’s a way to pause and notice: where are you right now, how are you feeling, and what might you need?

This can be really useful, as can help you to notice patterns you might not be aware of otherwise.

Art can be healing, and can be used as a therapeutic tool - but when you’re just getting started (or when you’ve been doing the same old thing for a while) - how do you know what to draw?

This is the first in a series of posts offering some suggestions. We’ll begin with spontaneous drawing. These suggestions are written as if you’re going to draw in an art journal, but you can give these a go on a piece of loose paper, on a wall… whatever you have to hand.

Creativity is freedom.

When you write or draw or make things or sing - you can do anything you want.

Put red here. Blue there. Burn it and begin again.

Write some words, fit them into sentences, read them back and reorder them so they sound like poetry.

Creative freedom is absolute within whatever limits exist.

It’s a nice puzzle. You’re not free, because there are limits, but within these limits, you are completely free. 

Seasons never get stuck. Have you noticed?

They roll on, one into the next, in their own time. Sometimes winter will be long, or sometimes summer will be cooler than usual, but the seasons keep on moving through their cycle, one after the other.

The moon is the same - it’s never stuck. It cycles through its phases, one into the next, drawing the tides with it as it goes.

There’s something comforting about seasons and the way they keep on moving. Maybe we don’t like the season we’re in, but if we’re attuned to our internal seasons, we can have some idea of where we’re at, and of what might be coming next.

“Well, the thing about trauma is that people suppress a lot of their feelings, a lot of their experiences, and art by definition is the opposite of suppression, it’s expression. Instead of pushing it down, you get it out.

Now, when that’s done consciously, when there’s conscious expression, that’s where the healing takes place. And that conscious expression, that conscious pushing it out, can be verbal, it can be emotional, but it surely can be facilitated by artistic expression, which bypasses the intellect and comes right from the emotional, gut level…”

Into the woods…

In the woods, you can’t see the forest for the trees. Can’t see anything for the trees, and that’s kind of the point - when you journey into the woods, you’re leaving certainty at the door. Check in any inkling that you might know what happens next - you can collect that again when we return. If we return. If you want it back..

Making tiny altars is one way that I bring moments of space and sacredness into my ordinary hours. They're a way of intentionally connecting with the unknown. They’re also good way of bringing some kind of creative practice to your day without needing to know how to draw - art therapy can take many forms!

I build tiny altars usually for one of two reasons. To hold an intention, or to hold a meaning.