The deeper I engage with Art Therapy, the stronger I feel about its place within advocacy and activism.
So how can I not use it as such?

Every story we penetrate about who we are - or who we’re told we are - is a brick to the miseducation we’ve received about our ‘role’ and our ’place’.
Every opportunity of ‘not knowing’ is a new self that can breathe in a system that chokes us into boxes and bottom-lines.
Every reminder of something we once housed within us is an act of preservation.
Every moment we slow down and reclaim from the fast-paced structures we’re set in is a chance for regeneration and transformation.
Every rising sense in our body that we move towards, is a resistance to the numbing fleetness of the everyday.
Every seeded curiosity about our next step can be a toxic cycle broken.

So how can I not use it as such?

Reclaiming a space once consumed by shame or guilt is one of the biggest leaps into reimagining a self that aligns with how you want to be in the world.

To resolve conflict.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
To rebuild a relationship.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
To repair self-talk.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
To show yourself to those closest to you.
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As part of a teaching demo by my tutors, I revealed the inner works of a relationship so intimate to a room full of colleagues. I knew when I volunteered that I needed to set the shame, guilt, and concerns of 'people talk' that riddled my thoughts aside.
'What will they say about me? What will they think about my relationship? About the 'other' in the relationship? About my upbringing? About my culture?’

It was a shaky moment stepping into full view so willingly, but it was necessary and memorable. As I stepped into the spotlight I also stepped into a strength I didn't know I had at the time.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

My desire to deconstruct and reimagine this relationship had become far more amplified than any concerns that had previously suffocated the relationship from breathing and thriving. And bullied me from doing the same.

'And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.' - Anais Nin

What might grow for you in the spaces taken over by guilt and shame?⠀

Every story we penetrate about who we are - or who we’re told we are - is a brick to the miseducation we’ve received about our ‘role’ and our ’place’.

Every opportunity of ‘not knowing’ is a new self that can breathe in a system that chokes us into boxes and bottom-lines.

Every reminder of something we once housed within us is an act of preservation.

Every moment we slow down and reclaim from the fast-paced structures we’re set in is a chance for regeneration and transformation.

Every rising sense in our body that we move towards, is a resistance to the numbing fleetness of the everyday.

Every seeded curiosity about our next step can be a toxic cycle broken.

'And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.' - Anais Nin