Trauma Art Narrative Therapy

[Lukie]

Anyone ever hear of this? Know what it consists of? Started seeing a new therapist tonight and she says this is something she utilizes a lot. I don't know what this means. I do know there isn't an artistic bone in my body, and you couldn't get me to 'draw a picture of my trauma' at gunpoint.

 

[Seasounds]

From what I know, you don't need to an artist; even better if you aren't (more freedom).

ideally, it gives people the freedom, support, and safe place, to explore and put together colors, textures, collages, with words, that express, represent, and resonate with what they feel, and have been through. It can be fun, interesting, and transformative, with a therapist that is a good fit.

 

[anthony]

The trauma part will be about representing traumatic aspects via art... but otherwise...

...it's good to relax yourself with, which basically many just never think about doing.

I did an implementation of this back in 2005, basically creating things surrounding aspects of trauma, smashing it to pieces, then putting the item back together however I wanted... just exploration in doing something to distract the brain, yet calm the brain, all at the same time.

The hidden agenda was rebuilding trauma into what I want it to be now...

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Yes, I did it as one part of processing at Intensive Trauma Therapy (ITT) in Morgantown, WV. I sill have the drawings in my closet and show them to new therapists instead of telling my story (so they know what I've been through).

Every picture is just stick figure type drawings, so you don't have to be artistic in the least. Drawing my trauma was the second step in my processing, and the next step was having the entire sequence read back to me. There were more steps, too.

 

[Lukie]

Ok. Thanks all. Think I've got a better picture now. I understood the art therapy part, just not the whys and how tos. Not going to knock it until I've tried it.

 

[sun seeker]

I've done art therapy - didn't help me particularly but I know it does help some people a lot. Also when I was having flashbacks a year ago I did some art on my own that showed some of what I was remembering, some of it symbolically and some realistically. It doesn't have to be artistic necessarily, it's very process-oriented. There was a while last year when I was experiencing severe anxiety and OCD-like symptoms, and just painting page after page in various shades of red helped me calm down. Sort of like what kids might do naturally to express what they are feeling. Some art therapists just sit with you as a supportive witness during the process, while others use more formal exercises. One I remember involved drawing two pictures relating to a situation that was bothering me, one of how it was in the present and the other of how I would like it to be (or maybe it was what was good in the situation - memory pales), then putting them on the wall and moving my eyes between them while tapping on my shoulder - or something like that - sort of like EMDR. It was supposed to help with integration. Not sure it did, but I only did it once. Hope that helps.