Come out to play
I have wanted to find out what exactly Art Therapy is for a while. I booked to do a workshop 2 months ago hoping this would help my professional development. I attended the workshop at the Sydney College of the Arts today as a very much needed therapy session to deal with the trauma of waking up from a terrifying ‘nightmare’ which haunted me for the past 2 weeks. The nightmare of fallen into yet another relapse.
One of the most useful exercises at today’s workshop was ‘Transforming a Worry’. The art therapist asked everyone to use some pastel colours to draw the image of their worries and how one was impacted (physically or emotionally) by it. The image didn’t have to look ‘nice’ or ‘real’, it could be symbolic using just a few different colours or shapes. Then the therapist asked the question ‘What’s needed here?’
By asking such a question, you directed your energy to think of a possible way forward or change. The next activity to follow was to transform the drawing of the ‘worry’ onto a bigger piece of paper and then draw the ‘answer’ to ‘What’s needed here?’ By creating an image with the original worry (or part of that image) and the things needed for a change side by side, one could than see a boarder perspective. It might not help you stop the worry instantly, but at least it provided a starting point and the self-awareness needed for the change.
In the last 2 weeks, I was so overwhelmed by all the work I needed to do before I could go on my study tour. My worries were magnified a million times and I literally freaked out! I was lost in my worries, didn’t know what to do next and desperately wanting to run away from the situation!
I yelled out loud for HELP this time! I was fortunate to have good friends and brothers & sisters in Christ to offer their precious time, support and prayers. Miraculously, yesterday afternoon while I was working on a research report, my lost ‘self’ returned to where it belonged.
Throughout the entire period of this terrifying nightmare, I asked myself ‘Could I get out of this episode of relapse soon enough?’ It seemed like never ending to me.
“Be still, and know that I am God!’ Psalm 46:10
