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Hi there, I’m Allison and it’s my great honor to write this blog post for Hearts Need Art. If you listened to my Arts for the Health of It episode, you may know that I’m a Domestic Abuse survivor who turned to art for both my and my clients' healing.

In April of 2017, I was dead for 33 seconds and came back with a major life purpose - to help other women overcome their trauma. On my own road to healing, I found that talking and emotions did not go hand in hand. After failed therapy attempts, I felt a strong urge to get back to my passions from before my abusive marriage: art and horses. I really leaned into my art, expanding my capabilities and found that I was able to create visuals of all the emotions for which I didn't have words.

Art is a way to help us express those deeper emotions that’s hard to find the words for or hard to share. I’ve never been one to open up and be, as I joked before, “all touchy, feely”. Instead, art, for me, became my words. It took that fear in voicing out those closely guarded emotions away. I was able to unabashedly create art that, to me, visualized every thought, emotion, and feeling I had during and after my trauma. It was chaotic, messy, and sometimes nothing but scribbles of blackness. To say this was therapeutic, is an understatement. Just like most counselor’s tool for healing is in words, art therapy became my tool.

But there’s a catch to all this! I’m sure you’re thinking, “OF COURSE there is. There’s always a catch.” The key to using art to help you heal is quite simple…

You need to get rid of the word and thought “perfect” or “perfectionism.” There is no room for perfectionism when it comes to creating something that embodies our emotions. Our emotions, themselves, tend to be disorganized, messy, and uncoordinated. So, instead, approach this art with a “stick figure” mentality. Knowing that it may not be perfect, but it will perfectly visualize your experience and emotions.

Much like my Keyhole Exercise (seriously go watch the podcast!), you want this art to be displayed somewhere you will see it. Use it as a reminder of how strong you are to have gotten through that situation and how you are now on the other side of it. To summarize Maya Angelou, in order for us to know where we are going, we must know and understand where we have been. 

Happy Arting to all you beautiful souls.