"Your life matters"~Unknown Photo by Sydney Sang: https://www.pexels.com/photo/suicide-awareness-month-yellow-ribbon-display-33699793/ This post was challenging to write. Just thinking about suicide is triggering for me. It is hard to look at the alarming rates of suicide, to think of people I know who have taken their lives and to remember times when I felt suicidal. For many people… Continue reading World Suicide Prevention Month
Category: art therapy
Reflections on Adulthood and Recovery
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” — E.E. Cummings Design by Suzanne Nicholl It's a birthday milestone today. It has me reflecting on stages of life, growth, and learning edges. When I look back at myself as a young adult, I see someone who was engaged in an active… Continue reading Reflections on Adulthood and Recovery
A History of Art Making, Art Therapy, and Mental Illness
“Art opens the closets, airs out the cellars and attics. It brings healing.” – Julia Cameron This was found art from Salt Spring Island ~ Photo Credit Meegan Simpson-Cooke I like this quote by Julia Cameron, author of the Artist's Way and other books on reclaiming our creativity and realizing creative dreams. Many people with… Continue reading A History of Art Making, Art Therapy, and Mental Illness
Looking Back, Looking Forward: May is Mental Health Awareness Month
"Healing Yourself is Connected with Healing Others" Y. Ono Photo by Marcel Strauß on Unsplash May is Mental Health Awareness Month. It is a month to promote awareness and reduce stigma around mental illness and to offer support and resources to those with lived experience of mental illness, and their supporters. CMHA, the Canadian Mental… Continue reading Looking Back, Looking Forward: May is Mental Health Awareness Month
How Art Therapy and Mental Health Recovery Values Align
“Art is a way of recognizing oneself” ~ Louise Bourgeois This blog post weaves in material from a paper that I wrote about mental health recovery and art therapy. The topic of the paper is that mental health recovery principles align naturally with art therapy and that people with lived experience of mental illness can… Continue reading How Art Therapy and Mental Health Recovery Values Align
The Ins and Outs of Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) and…
...A Sneak Peek at Mental Health Recovery Collages "Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow." ~ Mary Anne Radmacher Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) is not something that I have personal experience with, but I know that it is a therapy… Continue reading The Ins and Outs of Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) and…
When Talking Isn’t Enough:
Somatic Therapy, Mental Health, and Healing Trauma “Trauma is not what happens to us, but what we hold inside in the absence of an empathetic witness.” ~ Dr. Peter Levine I watched Dr. Peter Levine’s rare somatic therapy demonstrations. You can watch them on YouTube at https://youtu.be/_0QVKXU2wMI It is amazing how intuitive, gentle, and compassionate… Continue reading When Talking Isn’t Enough:
The Body Image Blues: Challenging a Cultural Obsession with “Thinness”
Our light and power Have nothing To do with the Shape of our bodies That house us. Melody Godfred ~ Self Love Poetry Writing about body image, society’s ideals of beauty, and health is hard. Like many people, I have struggled with body image, and my relationship with food and exercise. My mental health journey… Continue reading The Body Image Blues: Challenging a Cultural Obsession with “Thinness”