My 1st Art Therapy Session Ever!
By Khem Alexis Aw
I was gifted with a beautiful art therapy session by funky lady Rachel Marsden, when I responded to her post mentioning her love of Wordsworth’s poetry. I didn’t know she did such cool stuff using art! I was delighted we connected so quickly and joyfully.
What did we do?
Via Skype, we had a 1-on-1 Guided Intention Setting session using art because Rachel was inviting volunteers to experience what she had to offer in her new and exciting business. Lucky me!
Why do art therapy?
Rachel suggests that as art works from our unconscious and not conscious mind, it could be a powerful way to connect to what I want to change in life. As serendipity would have it, we had connected at the time of the new moon, a perfect time for setting intentions for new things to come into my life. Bring it on!
I picked the topic of strengthening the links among creativity, compassion, and financial abundance.
What did we do first?
Made perfect sense to start by making space through releasing a limiting story from my past. Guided by capable Rachel, I drew a picture representing my limiting story . . . and gained unexpected insights into what’s going on unconsciously with an internal check.
Beyond what I could do by myself, having Rachel there is to have someone with a supportive heart space with you to reflect on the drawing, and point out things you might have missed yourself because, hey, we all have our blind spots. People who do not believe they have blind spots literally cannot see beyond their current point of view to effect change. Great to have someone with a helpful, loving intention to check your blind spots!
We spoke about a few other things and then, came the best part. I released that limiting story symbolically with a fun and simple action.
What did we do next?
Now that I’ve created the space to set my intention, Part 2 was to “activate my intention through art by physically creating that intention in an artwork”, and “mentally releasing it in all my senses”.
See! Art is not just narcissistic self-expression! It can be used for very pragmatic reasons as well! My Singapore DNA was pleased.
Delightfully, a very different drawing emerged. Rachel mentored me to stay present to the feelings of the intention, and create from a space as if I had already achieved what I set out to create.
In closing, Rachel invited me to honour my intention and asked me how I felt. Something someone had said at a workshop I attended popped up in my mind, “I’ve got my own back.”
Would I have paid for a 1-on-1 art therapy session?
If I had to make that decision before I’ve experienced it, probably not. I could not have imagined its value. What? Pay someone to tell you to draw pictures? You must be joking. I can do it for free all by myself, right?
However, such a session with Rachel is not about drawing pictures. Its value goes beyond your scrawlings. It is about creating a time and space to address something you want to change in your life, that you probably have not been able to resolve by thinking about it over and over again, or complaining about it to your friends till they’ve all disappeared; or perhaps it is an issue that is bigger than Ben Hur and hurts your head or heart every time you try to figure it out because it is much too confusing and complicated and you’ve come to a stage where your are all numbed out or all tangled within.
Art therapy hijacks your analytical habits and connects straight to your unconscious. Having an art mentor there providing instructions keeps your conscious mind occupied enough for deeper work to happen. Gentle Rachel is a wonderfully supportive and loving person who can be there for you when you are doing this brave shit. It could activate your inner wisdom. Trigger an emotional shift. Propel a quantum leap into a better reality.
So, does art therapy work? I don’t know, I am not analysing it. All I know is that within a few days something absolutely unexpected happened and within a week I got a long-term well paid project that uses my creative writing ability to advance a heart-centred community-based cause. What fun! 🙂
Will art therapy work for you? Well, you won’t really know till you go through that experience yourself. Happy exploring!