Connection to Inner Self
With respect to the theme “I connect with my inner self and elicit new insights through art,” several participants described how they create a connection to their inner self through immersion in the creative process. Sam (all names used in this article are pseudonyms) referred to the experience of immersion as “a meditative process, which works like a mindfulness or a dialectical behavior therapy exercise.” Kathryn explained: “I find that no matter what else is going on, especially stresses in my life, which can include so-called mental health issues, when I am here doing art nothing else exists.” Alex took a slightly different stance, stating “I just sort of let it flow without censoring myself; I don't sort of judge what comes out of my [drawing] pen.”
Becoming immersed involved what Sam called a “follow your nose” process that takes her “into a place where [art] evolves on its own.” Kathryn saw such immersion as a connection to her unconscious self where “ideas just come and then they disappear.” She remarked that as a result “some bits really form my expression, particularly when I am expressing things that I am not conscious of.”
Once participants were immersed in their creative process they were able to resolve inner conflicts or problem solve. For example, Sam found that becoming completely absorbed in art making provided her with relief from her “demons.” Sam's unique insight was that she created art not just to be distracted but also to actually diminish her “self-destructive energies.” Another participant, Sean, explained that he used art to “challenge core things within” himself, saying that his artwork was “part of the development of who I am and how I feel about myself.” Had he not created certain artworks, Sean asserted, he would not be where he is today. As a result of his internal work, he saw that selling his artworks would disrupt his sense of self, “like selling my finger.”
Kathryn recounted a similar processing of her experience through art making, explaining that she “wanted to show there was trauma … that it was being stitched up” (Figure 1). For her, the stitching up process “took time to repair” her self and throughout such a time she found there was “something very exposing about it.” Expressing these kinds of internal experiences through art making had wider implications that extended to how the participants communicated to others. Clare found that she could use her artworks to communicate with her therapists and doctors. She reflected: “In the end I realized I was helping myself by sharing more. So it was I who was going to benefit from telling them all about it and a lot changed.”