THE POWER OF CREATIVITY IN THE HEALING PROCESS

As a young girl of about 11, I was given a task of writing either a poem or a short story for a small journal that my English teacher was going to place together and distribute to all members of both her classes. The assignment was to write a poem or short story and then to decorate the page upon which it was written so that it could be reproduced. I thought the teacher was whacked….after all I had no capacity to write….and then to decorate it. Well, after 3 hours I finally came up with this poem titled "The Maiden and the Swan". I then sketched out a scene of a pond with a swan swimming on it and a young girl sitting with her back to the reader watching the swan.

The next day when it came to handing it in I was so embarrassed that I made sure to slip it on the bottom of the pile. My teacher informed me that she thought my poem was very thoughtful with deep meaning and asked for permission to read it to the class. As she finished reading the piece, the class sat with their jaws dropped open.

I felt so good as I walked home that day. I could not wait to share with my mother that I had received such good compliments on both my art and my writing but when I told her….she simply stated "don’t get your hopes up….after all art and writing isn’t really that important in life". When I told my teacher, she then told me a story about having a special place to write…to put my feelings into words in ways that only I would ever really understand. She gave me a bunch of topics and asked me to write 4 lines about each…then for the next two weeks she would ask me every night to add a line about the topic to each….In the end I had 10 beautiful poems.

In October of 1993, I ended up inpatient psych for the first time in my adult life. I spent 8 weeks in the psychiatric unit. For the first three weeks of the hospital stay, I lay in bed, not moving, not staring at the wall, thinking of nothing... The art therapist there approached me with paper, pencils, pens, crayons, etc…anything to get me to express myself. Finally at the beginning of the fourth week I began to draw 5 minute sketches of my flashbacks….then into the fifth and sixth week they became more detailed drawings, and by the end of the fifth week I was actually leaving the room…..eating with other patients and looking toward living life again. I began to write little phrases that would pop into my head on the drawings and then short journal entries and then I began writing even more.

I began to write even more including joining a writing group. The group was the best experience I ever had. It was a group of young men and women who wrote the most powerful writings. It was through this group that I began to realize the need to break from my so called family as well as understand more about my DID / MPD. Then last year I began to facilitate my own group. The group was a combination art / writing group…The numbers varied as the year passed by and I am now facilitating the second session of this workshop. Also I left my first writing group to join an all women’s writing group.

So how have the Creative / Expressive Arts been important in my healing…well even as I sit typing this article I am reminded of the power of words…I am reminded of how much being able to have an outlet to express emotions which were not allowed for such a great part of my life kept me alive. I am reminded that the power of healing through art / writing / dance/ etc lies within each of us and that we only need to grasp at it.