Art therapy: give feelings color and shape
People who have survived the tragedy come to psychotherapists, faced with misunderstanding and experiencing mental pain. But there are other situations when everything is joyful and positive in the outside world, and the client literally excludes himself from this stream, hides and longing for. In cases where the cause of what is not clear, art therapy can help, the psychotherapist Tatyana Potemkina believes.
We make a decision to move to another country in the hope that our life will become better. Not necessarily easier, but more interesting, brighter, more prosperous. And we are ready for difficulties. But we are waiting for them from the outside: a new language, customs, environment, tasks. And they sometimes come from the inside.
By the time 34-year-old Julia turned to me on Skype, she did not leave the house for the fifth month. In the Scandinavian country, where she moved two years ago, the danger did not threaten her. The husband tried to spend at home as much time as possible. When he was absent, he sent an assistant if she needed something. And Julia was getting worse.
“I go to the door and cover myself with cold later, it’s
dark in my eyes, I don’t fall in a fainting,” she complained. – I don’t understand what is happening to me!
When “nothing is clear”, art therapy can help. I asked Julia to prepare paper for the next session, gouache. And she assured that the artist should not be. “Open all the jars, take the brush and wait a bit. And then do what you want “.
Julia dipped a brush in several flowers in a row and left long stripes on paper. One sheet, the other. I asked what feelings they cause her. She replied that it was very sad – like when her brother died.
Ivan was her cousin. Peers, they were friends in childhood, they spent summer in a common summer house. Teenagers called back, but Julins no longer wanted them to meet: it became known that Ivan became interested in psychoactive substances.
At 20, he died from an overdose. Julia believed that he himself was to blame, since he had so ridiculously disposed of his life. But she felt sorry that she could not help him. Anger, sadness, wine mixed in it. She did not like this confusion, she tried to forget Ivan and plunged into her studies, then in her career: she led a popular television program, she was recognized on the streets.
Personal life. Julia became the wife of a successful entrepreneur, who appreciated for the cheerful character. They made a decision on emigration together and did not doubt its correctness.
The husband continued his business, and Julia decided to follow his example, opening Russian language courses. But the matter did not go. She was afraid to start another.