Rx: Permission to Create
When PTSD has shut down cognition and your mind is trapped in a battlefield of soul wounds that can be passed down generationally, art can paint a story. Today, I want to walk you through how art became my therapy. Using art intentionally to make a meal or listen to music, to create a mask, or painting. Creating art opens pathways to better mental health and well-being. So, where to begin?
My art therapy journey began in therapy 14 years ago. My homework was to find something that sparked my interest. A friend introduced me to an artist she found online, "The Divine Spark" with Shiloah Sophia. I bought some supplies and a large canvas. Soon, I was sketching the divine feminine and learning what spirituality meant to me. Next, I blessed the canvas with a vivid background. I made a bunch of mistakes, but the best part is, they are easy to start fresh and try again. More time to play with the colors. It became a meditation for me, like creating a mandala or coloring a picture. This form of painting is called Intentional Creativity. It was only the beginning of starting to understand that the childhood trauma I had experienced was what landed me where I was. Many layers later, my confidence grew. Here I am today, returning to school to learn how to integrate therapy and art.
Another artist who has been inspiring me during my research about neuroscience and art is Judy Tuwaletstiwa. She discovered painting as her way to heal from generational trauma. She has learned that art has taught her that image is a transformative gift of healing. During her journey to the desert in New Mexico, she learned about the Kiva murals from Phillip, who is a member of the Hopi Tribe. During the ceremonial cycles, ancestral Puebloans would paint rich murals on the walls inside the underground circular ceremonial rooms. After the ceremony cycle was completed, they would whitewash the mural and then paint another ritual-based mural.
When she returned from her trip, Phillip called and asked to learn to paint. She suggested that he paint like his ancestors. After the call, she realized she should do the same. By letting go of each painting, you are letting go of self-criticism. Through her painting process, Tuwaletstiwa learned that art is healing and that our hands can lead us. (Here is a clip of one of her paintings and the layers behind the final layer, How I Learned to Paint)
Decades later, neuroscience is discovering that the part of the brain affected by trauma shuts down communications. The Borca is located in the left hemisphere of the brain in the frontal lobe. This is the part of the brain that processes speech. Using art can activate the same part of the brain that the trauma has silenced. Allowing a visual aide to communicate what words cannot express. Using visual imagery to narrate healing stories.
Creativity is inside all of us and allows us time to process complex emotions that are stored from PTSD, or daily stressors. Becoming an artist brings the communication back online in non-verbal forms. As an artist, you can use your medium as a way to create a healthy environment. Make healing spaces to change the narrative of your story that once had no words, now has a visual for the emotions you experience.
Your Brain on Art by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross noticed that with the Industrial Revolution, the arts started to diminish. Most children won't use art past the third grade. Magsamen and Ross have found that our brains are wired for art, important for our well-being, and is a transformative experience. Human beings have been using art to communicate as far back as the cave beings. Art creates culture and culture creates community and community creates humanity.
Below is an example of how I used painting with my son to help us through separation anxiety. I was grieving the loss of my father and navigating my son's big emotions with leaving each other for a long school day. Circle of Security~Shark Music is a way to tame parenthood's fears and anxieties. Building a secure attachment with your child takes time to be with them while they are regulating their emotions. I used this opportunity to co-regulate with Olli by having some fun with a blank canvas and some fun colors. After I completed mine, we hung them next to the door to remember to return to HomeOstasis by taking a deep breath, knowing we will miss each other very much and we will see each other soon. Below are the results from an improve-to exercise to work through some anxieties. I used the "Shark Music" method as my intentions as I painted each layer to help me navigate my son through his emotions as I keep my own calm. This is not easy, so painting is a great way to engage our mirror neurons and help the compassion and creativity name those big feels to tame them. I love how we both chose to look positively towards the future. We are weathering the storms together as we sail through life.
Momma's Shark Music
By Jadelin Craig, March 2022
Island in the Sun, by my son
Oliver, Feb 2022
HomeOstasis
March 2022
There is a creative genius in all of us. I hope you will give yourself permission to embrace your creative side, get messy, and have fun. It is more fun to play while you bring your reptilian brain back to homeostasis.Works Cited
Being-With and Shark Music -- Circle of Security International, https://vimeo.com/circleofsecurity/being-with-and-shark-music?share=copyJudy Tuwaletstiwa, https://www.judytuwaletstiwa.com/
Gma Judy, How I Learned to Paint, https://youtube.com/shorts/VXZzSX6LYaI?si=OA8c0VgVQiQ_tqjN
Phyllis Doyle Burns https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/Ancient-Hopi-Rituals-and-Ceremonies
Maestri, Nicoletta https://www.thoughtco.com/kiva-ancestral-pueblo-ceremonial-structures-171436
Shiloh Sophia, https://musea.org/methodology-copy/
Wisdom, Art, and Longing - Judy Tuwaletstiwa - The Art2Life Podcast Episode 151, https://youtu.be/NTHm6dMyNAI?si=b766oZOKzdkWmZLI
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