Accessing the subconscious
Living with certain chronic conditions can be excruciating and intense for people.
In these circumstances, people living with these conditions can repress thoughts, memories, and feelings that still influence and shape behavior and decision-making. They can push this information and experience outside of consciousness without being aware of it.
To access this psychologically buried information, we have created a first-of-its-kind art therapy group workshop designed to create channels of expression for otherwise subconscious experiences and thoughts.
By creating art (e.g., paintings, sketches, sculptures), participants are able to materialize their experiences in ways that lead to the following kinds of insights:
- Revelations: in the moment, participants often realize uncomfortable or distressing aspects of their experience that were previously outside of conscious awareness
- Crystallizations: some aspect of experience that was vague and haunting becomes clarified and understood with a new clarity and perspective.
- Unmasking: Experiences that were understood in one way come to be understood in a wholly new light, as if the truth of the experience has become “unmasked” for the first time.
Overall, the creation of art pieces under the skillful guidance of an Art Therapy-trained Moderator permits unparalleled access to aspects of the patient experience that patients are unable to verbalize.