Create | Art | Healing

It was summer and I was sixteen. Not much of a sweet sixteen, more of a mature-beyond-her-years-sixteen and I was very aware of the troubles of humankind. From my early teens I had visited the library and I remember being super excited to finally be allowed into the 'adult' section, where I found books about meditation, ancient Indian and South American traditions and topics like Buddhism and the Eye of Horus. In a strange way much of the knowledge in these books seemed 'known' to me and they gave me a context for the life I was living.

At sixteen that important question of what you want to do with your life comes up and perhaps it was the fact that someone very dear to me was not coping well with life at the time, or my level of awareness of human suffering in general, that I wanted to study something in the field of psychology, psychoanalysis or some form of therapy. To watch someone I loved in a daily struggle was hard and I knew they weren't the only one who was having a rough time. My vocation became clearer and clearer and when I made up my mind I decided to study Creative Arts Therapy.

But then something happened that shook my world.

Ripped apart at the seams, everything I had believed in up until this moment, was gone in an instant. It left me trembling to my core and in a very shaky existential crisis. After spending an awesome Boxing Day together with my group of friends, one of my best friends died in a fire while he was asleep.

He was only 19.

His death changed the course of my life. From knowing what I wanted to do to feeling hopelessly lost, from being certain of my trajectory, to giving it all away. I was a confident 16 year old one day, and questioning the point of life the next. And instead of studying Creative Arts Therapy and securing my lifepath, I bought a plane ticket and travelled for 7 years, discovering more of the world, humankind and my Self every single day.

When traveling I made sure to always carry a little journal, some scissors, pencils and watercolours with me and I created and journaled in the old cities of France, on trains and boats between Italy and Greece, painted on the beaches of South East Asia, drew pictures in the deserts of the Middle East, and wrote poems on an old bench in the city of Ayuthaya.

Fast forward many, many years... By this time I had landed in Australia, with two beautiful little children of my own. I was running successful mixed media, journaling, and bookbinding workshops and combined all of these skills into teaching art journal series. I ended up running an online course before instagram and facebook were even 'a thing'! Participants used to come up to me during these workshops and tell me about their discoveries in their art journalling work, they cried and released much of the pain they had carried for years. Tears of joy and healing, so much healing that it shook me to the centre of my being. I realised that this was it!! This is what I needed to do more of, I needed to learn the skills to be able to support people better during this process! So I googled and found a Transpersonal Art Therapy course started the month after, and so I enrolled, was accepted and found myself on the first day of the course sitting amongst friends, people I related to on a deep level and it felt like I returned home.

The question was asked: "What brings you here?" and BAM! All of a sudden I remembered I was ALWAYS supposed to be here, and ALWAYS supposed to do this. I saw images in my mind of enrolling in the Creative Therapies course when I was sixteen and looking for places to live close to college together with my dad. I remembered how my life changed and how I completely forgot that this was what was meant to be. I also realised that the years of creating whilst traveling had healed my heart and made me find meaning again.

Another fast forward... I still create, and not only does creativity bring healing and insights to my clients, it does to me too. I am grateful to be able to bring my passion into my work and inspire others to connect with their creativity too.

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