Creative Expression
I have made and sold my art for decades. It is a passion. I also believe it has served as an integral part of my self healing from a childhood with a very high A.C.E. (Adverse Childhood Experiences) score. I intuitively gravitated to that which could make me better despite earning degrees in other fields and beginning a career almost entirely unrelated to personal creative expression.
But art won after I experienced the untimely death of a sister. We were both in our late twenties and it is then I discovered the fragility of expectations and that it was up to me to pursue my dreams right away if I wanted a life with more meaning, So, yeah, creative expression has been an important part of my career, my life, my way of being. In fact I would say embracing art was an important element to my overall sanity.
When Covid came many of us who had formed our own treatment plans found ourselves overwhelmed with these new worldwide traumas.
One day as I was returning home from fetching groceries, masked and wary, I got pulled over by local police. I didn’t know why. Turned out it was a shakedown. The type of extortion that is business as usual here in Mexico. They wanted money. I guess this was a last straw because as the day went forward from here I became increasingly agitated. Panic attack. A lifetime of tamping things down finally broke through the seams I had carefully sewn through the years.
I sought help. I was connected to an art therapist. The work we did online together for the next year was life changing. I was able to reach deep within and expose old hurts to the healing light of personal inquiry.
The other thing is, I am 66 years old - solidly started in the last third of my life. I am in the stage of the Crone. Maybe I am wiser now. Though I have lived a life of sharing, these times seem to be crying out for even more help. I am here for it. I am ready to apply personal experience with professional training in order to form experiences to help others who might be suffering or who just want better access into their own wise selves through creative considerations.
I have naturally applied many of the principles of the person-centered approach as a teacher of art. It’s time now to create experiences that build on this as an avenue to rebalance.