Artwork of Adults in therapy for childhood trauma

 

Due to client confidentiality, the gallery artwork is anonymous. All the creative works of art, poetry and prose on this website have been created as part of therapy to heal from trauma and/or abuse. I sincerely thank the clients who have so kindly allowed their works to be published in the service of educating the public about trauma and raising awareness of its effects.

The enlightened approach to art therapy precludes the ‘authoritative’ interpretation of people’s creative expression. Rather, clients are invited to find their own path of understanding, or simply witnessing, the visual or verbal expression of the wounded parts of self. Some of the paintings in the gallery have already been exhibited elsewhere, accompanied by written explanations, and in those cases I have included the captions.

Although I don’t offer interpretation of the paintings below, I have grouped them into categories for ease of reference. These categories follow the “Essential Issues” schema outlined under the Healing Journey tab.  If this is ‘interpreting’, I apologize!

 

 

Secrecy, Silence and Fear

        

 

 

 

 

Dissociation, Dissociated parts of self

 

 

 

 

 

Recognising the damage ;

Honouring what you did to survive ;

And understanding that it wasn’t your fault.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Memory, stored in body and mind

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ANGER :  ‘the backbone of Healing’ (Bass & Davis)

 

 

Parenting the wounded self

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Healing  &  Moving on

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Depictions from Helpless Victimization to Triumphant Empowerment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post-Natal Depression & Trauma

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Child Art Therapy