Client Work

My Place of Peace

Rae was in therapy for about a year, working through her significant grief and loss after her father’s  passing. She created this image at her last therapy session, titled “My Place of Peace” which says so much about how far she had come from the pain and trauma of losing her father to leaning how to  process her grief and loss through the art making process to arrive at her “place of peace.”

My Father’s Last Journey

This “story mask” was created by a 16-year-old girl, Rae, who lost her father in a camping accident. She  used the mask as a canvas to tell the story of his last day, as she imagined it. Rae painted a figure to  represent her father in the upper left-hand side of the mask climbing the mountain, where he set up his  tent, pictured on the right had side of the mask. A waterfall runs down the center of the mask to  imagine more fully the setting. Rae derived deep comfort on the one-year anniversary of her father’s  death, creating this mask and illustrating that her father was doing what he most love to do: being out  in nature, hiking, and camping out.

A Happy Safe Place

The objective behind this painting was to create a happy and safe place the client can visualize in her mind when she is in a situation that makes her feel scared, sad, or angry. This painting was inspired by the feeling of “happiness” which the child had at the time of the session. This is a painting of flowers and trees that are growing on green grass and sitting under a blue sky with pink clouds. The colors she chose are all colors that she associates with the feeling of happiness. This client now has a picture she can visualize in her mind when she feels scared, angry or mad to help herself feel safer.

Three Stages of Life

This piece was created to represent three stages in the client’s life. The first stage is shown on the pink piece of paper and has the words, joyful, spoiled, playful and loved written on it. This stage was a time of happiness before the abuse began. The second stage is embodied by the black piece of paper that has the words sad, mad, controlled and nervous on it. This was a stage in this client’s life that was abusive, unsafe and scary. The third stage is represented by the blue piece of paper that has the words happy, free, excited and safe written on it. This represents her life now, after the abuse and her excitement for the future.