Week Nine: Unlocking the Unconscious

I am now coming to the end of my course in 'Creative Health and Wellbeing through Artmaking' at UAL. This week we explored Joseph Campbell's concept of 'The Monomyth' and the steps of 'The Hero's Journey'. We used this to share stories of overcoming difficulties in our lives using mythology, fantasy and symbolism. I really liked this approach as I felt removed from the story I wished to share and so it became easier to tell. Listening to the stories of others was easier too and I felt focused on the meaning of their stories as opposed to the gory details of their lives. Over the next couple of weeks I am tasked with developing a short Creative Health activity to deliver to the rest of my group.

I am starting to think more in depth about my own approach to Creative Health as a practitioner. I feel strongly that creative activities should be restorative, transformative or a mixture of the two. I am so deeply interested in the role of materials and processes in unlocking the unconscious mind but also the ethics of holding a space for pain and trauma to resurface and heal. I am questioning what boundaries need to be put in place to ensure the safety of the participant and the practitioner.

The Road to Freedom

I have thought a lot about the times when creativity has helped to give me strength when I have felt a sense of injustice, restriction or have been silenced. How symbolism has helped me to tell a story at my own pace, often in a humorous way that is open to the interpretation of the viewer. I have thought about musical instruments and the way they have helped me to regulate my emotions through a rhythmic form of meditation. How tap dancing has provided an opportunity to connect with my body and to feel the present moment. How ceramic processes have acted as a sensory form of anger management. I have thought about the things that have helped me to unlock my own intuition when faced with a situation where the odds are stacked against me. I have thought about the things that have brought me peace.

I have reflected back to an activity that I completed earlier on my course that involved cutting out words from a newspaper and arranging them to create a poem. The idea is to cut out words that stand out to you without thinking too much and then to arrange them in sentences to form a poem. I was fascinated by this process and how without intending, it revealed some of the things that had been on my mind. The more I look at this poem, the more I understand that it was helping me to establish my own values and approaches to Creative Health in a professional manner when my development is so deeply rooted in lived experience. I started to wonder if this would also be the case when collaging with pictures. I have thought about oracle cards as a tool for unlocking the unconscious mind, trusting your intuition and helping you to decide your next move. I am interested in the connection between oracle cards and collage as a surrealist technique and will explore this further over the coming weeks to design and develop an activity for my group.