How I Came to Discover the Healing Power of Art Therapy & How It Can Help You

“It was a defining moment in my life when I realized I was at a loss for words, and this painting depicted all of it. I was able to physically release the sadness, rage, and spinning questions from my body, if even only for a moment.”

I will never forget the day my Aunt Bonnie offered me a small tablet of watercolors and said to me, “Paint what you are feeling, Gina.” I stared at her with a look of bewilderment and then stared out the window, where the sun was shining and neighbors were walking their dogs. Everything outside looked like a typical Saturday in our neighborhood. But my internal world was raging with chaos, sadness, overwhelm and the unknown. I was 17 years old at the time, and my mother was in the other room battling for her life with stage 4 Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Every shallow and rattled breath I heard from her shook any bit of safety and grounding within me. I knew I was going to lose her, and I didn’t know what being “motherless” was going to look like or feel like. All I had ever known was her love, her physical presence of reassurance – a biological anchor in this world.

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