Healing Collage: Two-Handed Dialogues with Images for Healing

Our guest blogger, Kathy Lee Bryant, was a Minister when she trained as a practitioner in my Creative Journal Expressive Arts Method. She was later certified as a Visioning® coach, teaching my Whole-Brain, Two-Handed dialogue Method of creating a collage and interviewing the images. I resonated deeply with Kathy’s journey through knee surgery, because I used these techniques while going through two hip replacements seven years apart. Written conversations with bones, athletic bodies and dancers moving freely helped me to a new reality in my 70s: a state of pain-free, flexible movement I hadn’t enjoyed for a several years. Here is Kathy Lee’s tale of healing.

Healing Collage: Two-Handed Dialogues with Images for Healing 

I created this collage as a journal entry prior to total knee replacement. The desired outcome for the collage was successful surgery and physical therapy. I first interviewed the seven images seeking information and wisdom for the healing needed for this surgery. I am now three weeks out of surgery which went very well and am progressing well in physical therapy.

Interview with the Collage Images

Using the non-dominant hand to answer the dominant hand’s questions.


Strange Face on upper left of collage.

Who or what are you? Do you have a name?

I am Discombobbled.

What are you feeling, Discombobbled?

Frustration and fear. Nothing seems to work out lately-the eyes, the chair, mattress, computer-some costly mistakes and frustration. How am I feeling about the knee? Fear about the knee? Will it work? Will I get an infection, will I be able to move freely and well, will be able to move freely enough to find new adventures with friends.? These fears are welling up and it is not helpful.

What wisdom do you have for me?

Trust that below that fear and frustration is a calm wisdom that will make things happen. Trust your Doc, he is good-one of the best. Trust the therapists, they will get you there. You won’t be in this state forever.

What do you need from me?

Breathe, stand firm. Believe all will be well. Scribble, scream, sing- let it go but not with Don—then breathe in - stop worrying - fret not, I am with you.


Woman in center holding the younger inner child

Who are you?

I am woman - the one who creates. See in my hands I hold a new you—what you are going to become.

How do you feel?

Powerful - the creator. I am the inner wisdom and peace you are hoping to be—all is well when you tap into my inner creative power.

What wisdom do you have for me?

Breathe deeply until you tap into this power that heals, brings peace and confidence. The healing is most important.

What do you need from me?

Seek your greater power - divine healing of body and soul. Sing tomorrow knowing that the Holy One, is within. As you allow this Holy One in healing creative power through you and out of you.


Little Girl with balloon - lower left

Who are you little girl? What is your name?

I am sweetheart—your inner child. I am trying to get you to let me soar – like the balloon – releasing the heart to soar.

Feelings, my sweetheart?

I am happy, light hearted - get in touch with me! Lighten up. Play, laugh, enjoy. Let go.

Your wisdom?

I just gave it - get in touch with me.

What do you need from me?

Let go, trust what brings joy. Lighten up, you will heal.


Flying Person with glasses mask

Who are you?

I am soaring. I am the future you. Moving freely –something you long for.

What are you feeling?

Light, agile, able to go wherever you want.

Do you have any wisdom for me?

Let the little child lead you. Don’t look at what is disaster but remember the work you do will make you a new person-able to go and do.

What do you need from me?

Trust that through the dark will come light. Limp to leap, hopelessness to joy, fogginess to clarity.


Two Skeletons

Who are the both of you?

Left - I am the crocked achy bones.
Right - I am the smooth operator.

How do you feel?

Left—stiff, stuck, creaking, tired
Right—Smooth, straight, leveled -energized

What wisdom do you have?

To move from feeling like the left skeleton to moving like the right bones, it takes time and work to get there. Do your part, Doc will do his.

Is there anything else you need from me?

Think positive, envision new energy and functional movement even through the pain. You will get results. Pay attention when you need different therapies.


Oh, The Places We Will Go book cover top

What are you?

A top made from Dr. Seuss book - Oh, the Places we will go.

How do you feel?

Wee! Moving freely across the floor, joyful, excited.

What wisdom do you have for me?

The top spins by pushing the handle up and down and letting it go, spinning in freedom. Where it goes depends on how you push down the handle. Think about how the handle needs to be pushed down to bring about the movement you desire.

What do you need from me?

Do your pushing. What are the questions you need answered in order for the handle to be pushed down so that the freedom you desire will come true. What info do you need to make good decisions from the docs, the nurses and the physical therapists. Keep pushing and then let go.  


Dancing Lady

Who are you?

I am a floating flexible woman.

How do you feel?

Amazingly free.

Do you have any wisdom for me?

You will be able to move again in a way that looks effortless but there is so much work behind the scenes to make it happen. Do the work and you will get to a place you want to be. Remember it is through the pain of the therapy that got you there.

Anything else you need from me?

Be persistent –you will need it in order to get through the work that is needed. You will move with grace, dancing with joy.  


Image Writing

I made a list of the images and the words used on the collage and put the collage in front of me. The following writing emerged describing the meaning of this collage.

Oh the places we will go, when envisioning a better tomorrow. 
Trusting those with skills, giving allegiance to the tasks ahead- 
Gives way to moving like a little child who follows the wonder and awe of a heart released, 
Moving freely through life--soaring to new heights. 
Like a woman holding the image of a child ready to embrace a new world, 
You are no longer discombobbled by the problems that weigh you down. 
Lighten up, let go, release the tensions and fears--healing emerges. 
No longer a skeleton with creaky joints, but bones connected moving freely, dancing through life.

Seeing clearly with eyes wide open, no longer vailed or masked— 
A winner emerges in hope, birthed from new life envisioned. 
Oh the places we will go.

Kathy Bryant
email pastorklb@gmail.com
phone/text 620-352-0073
Consulting, Visioning Coaching for groups, non-profits, churches and individuals

-----

Lucia

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The Path of the Firefly

Tatiana Naranjo, our guest blogger, is a candidate for certification in Creative Journal Expressive Arts. In keeping with our motto, "You can't take anyone where you have not been yourself," Tatiana keeps a Creative Journal. In her journal pages she works thorough day-to-day problems by drawing and writing using both hands. Here is her contribution to our blog.

The Path of the Firefly 

We are like the fireflies; our true beauty is our inner light. Fireflies in the fields resemble the stars in the sky. 

I have always been fascinated with these beings which seem so insignificant and unattractive in daylight. Only in the deepest, darkest of the night do they reveal their magic. As a child I enjoyed chasing fireflies. I was very inquisitive about these beings which were able to light up without being connected to an artificial source. Their hesitant flight attracted me, and I wanted to grab millions of them to light up my room.

Time passed and with it came many trips, learnings, new experiences, projects, and life landed me in the city. Shortly before graduating as a psychologist, I went to the Amazon. That trip brought one of the most memorable experiences I have had. It was a warm, dark night enveloped by a particularly clear sky in the Amacayacu National Park[1]. Suddenly, a cloud of fireflies resembled the star-populated sky. I had the feeling of floating in the middle of the galaxy. I saw nothing but the fireflies and the stars flickering around me in the heavenly vault.

In my own spiritual quest, the flashback of that magical night often replays. At times I try to give it an explanation, but it is a fleeting memory like the light of the firefly. When I was in times of trouble, when I asked God, the Universe, the Holy Spirit, or my spiritual guide, to give me a light, I then remember these little luminescent beings.

The path to reach this point has been long and productive. I arrived at the creative journals through a process of research, trial, and error. The first time I experienced the healing and therapeutic use of a journal was due to a chronic pain that I had for more than 7 years in my right foot. I refused to take anti-inflammatory painkillers, but every night my last steps were a torture that forced me to give up in tears.

After trying many therapies, exercises, shoe changes and various things, I had a consultation with an orthopedist who offered me two alternatives. The first was to do an Orthodox treatment with medicines or an alternative approach. I chose the second option. According to her calculations with my date of birth, she made a diagram of my body, in which she located each of the Mayan symbols, and told me the significance they had for me. She pointed out emotional difficulties that were related to the symbol. It corresponded with my right foot and its correlation with other points in my body that had also been affected. At the end of the consultation, her prescription was to buy a notebook and keep a diary. She gave me a few guidelines, suggesting that I go to the point in my life where the pain had commenced.

I did my assignment, bought a notebook, started my diary, and after a month, the pain that tormented me so much faded and never came back. I did not contact her again, but my interest in the journaling’s healing effect became an obsession. I read as many books I could find about artistic diaries and journaling; I enrolled in online courses and researched blogs. But I could not find a method, a guide or more information that would enable me to understand how journaling could be a healing element.

"When the student is ready, the teacher appears." 
Zen Proverb

“Every casual encounter is an engagement made beforehand.” 
Jorge Luis Borges

After many years and many readings, one day a book came into my hands. The book was "The Creative Journal" by Lucia Capacchione PhD, ATR, REAT[2], which I devoured in one sitting. To each paragraph, I said to myself, “This is what I was looking for!” By coincidence, I read this book on a flight to Santa Fe, NM. I was going to a conference called “The Gathering of the Creatives.” When I arrived and registered at the conference, I received the program. To my surprise, I found out that Dr. Capacchione was scheduled to give one of the lectures! I felt this urge to attend her lecture, as if it were calling me.

That is how I met Lucia Capacchione and learned about her method. I was astonished that in her books and in her lectures, I found the answers I had long sought for. And so, I enrolled, without even questioning it, in the CJEA[3] training course.

Following the instructions of some of the Creative Journaling exercises and writing with my non-dominant hand, I did the following entries of my journal, in which I found the meaning of the firefly:

We all have the light inside 
and when we shine from within, 
we not only show our beauty, 
but we are also beacons for others 
who in the midst of darkness, 
also seek for a light. 

I have spent many days mulling over this proposal, and it was thanks to my Inner Guide that I identified my purpose. My desire is to bring sparks that will help to ignite the interior light of many more people.

The following are examples of my journaling process that show part of my dialog with my Inner Guide.

 

Hi I'm your Creative Self who lives within you and I come out all the time in life to help you see life and its circumstances in color.

I help you find solutions in all the difficulties in your life.

I help you with a high level of imagination and you can see what you hear and read.

I am the voice that speaks to you when you write, when you paint I am always awake and attentive for you.

My Creative Self is like a seed of light that comes out of my interior and transforms into colors that show the beauty of life and my interior. My Creative Self manifests in everything I do and in the solutions I find in life's challenges.

In the center of my being (my trunk) creativity is the white light that forms my core and is dispersed in different facets of my life, filling all of my being and my world with color and energy.

Tatiana Naranjo
Candidate for Creative Journal Expressive Arts Certification
Tatiana@germovi.com

[1] A national park located along the Amazon River in the Amazonas Department in southern Colombia. 

[2] Lucia Capacchione PhD, ATR, REAT. Best-selling author of 23 books, including: Recovery of Your Inner Child, The Creative Journal and The Power of Your Other Hand. A Registered Art Therapist and pioneer in Expressive Arts Therapies, she conducts workshops and professional certification training in her innovative methods.

[3] A program for certification to teach and coach others using Dr. Capacchione's Creative Journal Expressive Arts Method.

-----

Lucia

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Creative Healing for a Fractured Collarbone: Weaving Together Non-Dominant Hand Scribbling and Writing

In early February, I fell and fractured my right collarbone. I’d been working in my studio hanging small drawings and watercolors to the wall with push pins. Descending from a small 2 stepladder, I misjudged the bottom step and extended my right leg too far. With my left foot still up on the top step of the ladder, my right foot was unable to land steadily on the floor. Next thing I knew, I was on the floor on my right side, still holding onto the ladder, which came down with me.

Long story short, the result was a fractured right collage bone (clavicle) and badly bruised right should, arm and elbow. The irony of all this was not lost on me, my friends, students and the physician in ER when I told him I’d written a book called, The Power of Your Other Hand. Upon showing me the X-ray results, he informed me that I’d have to keep my right arm in a sling for a while and limit use of my right arm and hand while my collar bone magically knitted itself back together over the next 4 – 6 weeks. No surgery required, just self-care, rest, and patience while Mother Nature glued the bone back together.

I am naturally right handed, so guess what? For a month I had to practice what I preach and teach and use my non-dominant (left) hand for almost everything: including writing, drawing, painting, typing, using a mouse, brushing my hair, shaking hands, etc. The corona virus was just hitting California, so “social distancing” was IN and shaking hands with people was OUT for health reasons. No driving, of course, and none of my regular leg and upper body exercising for strength at the gym. I’d get physical therapy later.

It could have been worse, I observed. If I hadn’t already had hip replacements on both sides, I might have broken a hip. No chance. These hips are made of unbreakable ceramic and titanium. So, grateful to be walking, I launched into my own healing program. My physician was out of town, so I made an appointment to see him upon his return. We had a phone conversation. An expert in vitamins with his own line of supplements, I got some supplements designed to help with bone growth and mending. And then I started Creative Journaling.

I drew the outline of my body (front and back) and let each body part tell me how it felt in a word or two or three. There were lots of places that were hurting and they had plenty to say.

What I learned after in depth dialogues (using my non-dominant hand to speak for the body parts) was that I needed to “rest, be quiet, not work, slow down…let the parts (of my personality) that go out in the world and are always in charge have a rest. Last year was all about that. This year is about being at home, care-giving us & out home….” We’d just renovated the kitchen. The emphasis was on “a place to nurture self and be nurtured.”

My fractured shoulder told me, “Your business right now is to take care of me.”

About 3 weeks after the injury, my arm still in a sling, I was able to do some bilateral (2-handed drawing) to music in my journal. I call this “Dancing on Paper” and always find it very relaxing in the face of daily news about COVID-19 and how rapidly the virus was spreading. Anxiety was in the air, as the corona virus became a worldwide pandemic, with entire cities and countries in lock down in an effort to contain it. I hadn’t realized how much tension was stored in my body from the injury and from the news until I left it on the page through scribbling and then writing to the rhythms of Keith Jarrett jazz piano solos.

The message, again, was that I needed to “baby myself like an infant” in order to heal my collarbone. It was written with my non-dominant hand using two pens of different colors.

As the words formed with my left hand, I thought, “Yes, it always comes back to inner child healing.” I realized that my right hand, which is the side of the body that does so much giving and reaching out and being in charge in the world, was forced to rest on my own stomach, due to being in a sling. The energy that I'd been putting out for many months, leading workshops, doing book signings, etc., was now being turned inward for my own healing. I continued scribbling my pain and stress out, this time with both hands.

Weaving insights from my Creative Journaling and the emotional release they provided into my daily program of rest and self-care has moved my recovery along quite beautifully. As of this writing, I have an appointment to start physical therapy, and will continue with the journaling and more artwork as my arm permits.

One important observation that I want to share is this: My experience over the years is that each and every body part or physical symptom has its own unique, situational and time-bound message. That is why I do not have much confidence in books that claim to tell you what your symptom, disease, body parts or pains “mean.” My clients, my students and my professional associates have all had the same experiences I have had. Each time we converse with our bodies we get different answers. The words from the body differ dramatically depending on the circumstances of our lives, the nature of the particular pain, the specific location, and the guidance the body gives on how to heal it. There is no easy formula for this. No quick answer from outside, from an “expert” or author who claims to know what’s going on in YOUR body and in YOUR life on this particular day.

The lessons the body has to teach us are individual, very particular and personal to us at any given time. Drawing and writing with the non-dominant hand can unlock the gifts that illness, injury or pain have to give us.

Note: Journal prompts for bilateral drawing and body parts dialogues are in Chapters 3 and 6 of The Power of Your Other Hand (Conari, 2019). There are also many journal prompts for self-healing in Drawing Your Stress Away and Hello, This is Your Body Talking (Ohio U/Swallow Press, 2017).

Be well,

Lucia

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Science Catches Up with Mapping Emotions in the Body

When my first book The Creative Journal was first published in 1980, I introduced my method of mapping emotions that get stuck in the body. In the first edition of The Power of Your Other Hand (1988) I devoted an entire chapter to this technique entitled “Finding the Healer Within.” Body mapping is done by creating a simple outline of the body and (using the non-dominant hand) coloring in the physical sensations that are speaking to us at the time. This is followed with a right-hand left-hand dialogue with each body part that has been colored in. The dominant hand asks questions and the non-dominant hand speaks for the body part. The choice of colors used in the body map is very personal and intuitive – there is no right or wrong way to do this. The written dialogues that result are profoundly insightful and usually lead to a decrease in symptoms and often to a complete healing. Many of my readers have reported amazing results using this technique. The detailed instructions appear in Chapter Six of The Power of Your Other Hand along with examples from the journals of my clients and students.

I’m happy to report that in recent years scientific studies have proven the physiological reality of what happens when emotions get stored in the body. The work of Dr. Candace Pert in her book Molecules of Emotions, led the way in scientific investigation of how emotions affect our health when they are not accepted and expressed. We all use terms like I had butterflies in my stomach, She’s a pain in the neck, This job gives me a headache, I’m shouldering too much responsibility, My stomach was tied up in knots, etc.

More recently, Riitta Hari, co-author of a 2014 Finish study on the bodily locations of emotion wrote, “We have obtained solid evidence that shows the body is involved in all types of cognitive and emotional functions. In other words, the human mind is strongly embodied.” Our brains are not disconnected from our bodies. Our emotions actually live in our bodies. Those common expressions as mentioned above have now been verified by science with new imaging techniques.

Embodied emotions have been mapped by neuroscientist Lauri Nummenmaa and co-authors Riitta Hari, Enrico Glerean, and Jari K. Hietanen. They did studies involving more than 1,000 participants in three experiments. These included having people rate how much they experience each feeling in their body vs. in their mind, how good each one feels, and how much they can control it. Participants were also asked to sort their feelings, producing five clusters: positive feelings, negative feelings, cognitive processes, somatic (or bodily) states and illnesses, and homeostatic states (bodily functions). They then made careful distinctions between emotional states, thinking and sensations.

On a computer, the study participants colored blank outlines of the human body, in response to a question about where they felt specific feelings. The researchers used stories, video, and pictures to provoke emotional responses, which registered onscreen as warmer or cooler colors.

Using imaging technology, scientists observed that similar families of emotions tended to cluster in similar places in the body. Anger, fear, and disgust tended to concentrate in the upper body, around the organs and muscles that most react to such feelings. Surprisingly, the so-called positive emotions of gratefulness and togetherness and the so-called negative emotions of guilt and despair all looked remarkably similar, with feelings mapped primarily in the heart, followed by the head and stomach. Mania and exhaustion, another two opposing emotions, were both felt all over the body.

The researchers controlled for differences in figurative expressions (i.e. “heartache”) across two languages, Swedish and Finnish. They also make reference to other mind-body theories, such as using somatosensory feedback to trigger conscious emotional experiences and the idea that we understand others’ emotions by simulating them in our own bodies. Read the full, and fully illustrated, study results in “Bodily Maps of Emotions,” published by the National Academy of Sciences.


Body mapping resources in Lucia’s books:
The Power of Your Other Hand

Hello, This is Your Body Talking

Drawing Your Stress Away
The Art of Emotional Healing
The Creative Journal
The Picture of Health (audio) – available only at luciac.com
 

Lucia

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Inner Healing: Jill's Story

A student of mine who started a deep inner healing process through dialogues with a physical discomfort is Jill. As a child, Jill wanted to become an actress when she grew up. But emotionally she wasn't able to follow through with her childhood dream and take it into adulthood. Instead she did what was expected of her: got married and had children. As she puts it, she became "Mrs. Somebody" and "Somebody's Mother."

After years of taking care of everyone else while ignoring her dream, Jill took a stand. She started seeing a therapist and also took one of my weekend journal workshops, where she discovered the healing power of her Inner Child through a right/left-hand dialogue. "It was a major breakthrough in my life," she recounts. Her first dialogue was a conversation with her headache. As she wrote, she soon contacted the Little Girl within who had been silenced for so many years.

HEADACHE DIALOGUE
(italics: non-dominant hand)

Who are you?

Your head.

How do you feel?

I feel pressure.

Why do you feel this—Are you saying pressure or pleasure?

Pleasure creates pressure.

Do you feel guilty when you are too happy?

I feel scared that something will happen so if I hurt it can't happen.

You hurt a little now. Would you like to tell me why?

Brain feels nice feeling nice is bad.

No, it is not nice to feel bad. It is not bad to feel nice. Who told you that?

Mommy said don't like your body it is naughty to love yourself.

Mommy was wrong about that. Anyhow she is not around anymore.

Yes she is in me I am her in your head.

Can I do something to help you so you won't hurt?

Yes you can tell me not to be afraid.

There is nothing to be afraid of. I will help you. I will take care of you. But I get angry sometimes.

If you are angry Mommy won't like you.

If Mommy doesn't like me because I get angry, then she doesn't understand. We can't control someone who doesn't understand.

It is OK to be angry but we need to find a way to express is that doesn't hurt you.

I am afraid.

What are you afraid of? Can I help you?

I want to be free.

What would you do if you were free?

I would hit and bite and scream.

Maybe we can go into a room by ourselves and do this. Would you like that?

Yes.

Are there other ways you can express yourself without really hurting anyone else?

I want to dance.

Years ago we used to play music and dance when we were alone—would you like that?

Yes I don't care how I look. You care how I look. You make trouble for me. You tell me I am clumsy. I want to be graceful but I am scared and scarred.

You have scars from the freeway accident. Is that why? Does all this go that far back?

Everybody always said use your head. I scarred myself to get attention because I am special and I wanted you to know me.

Were the migraine headaches a way of getting attention, then, too?

You wouldn't use me so I had to remind you. I want to think and feel together. You are Libra the balance. I am unbalanced you have to balance me.

How can I do that?

You must love me and respect me. I feel and think too, not just thinking.

Are you saying that I didn't consider your feelings enough?

You want to be a thinking head only feel somewhere else. Not right. Head does think and feel both. You say feel is bad so I feel bad.

If you believe feeling is good, would you feel good?

That is not exactly right.

What would make you feel good? I notice you hurt now.

That's right I hurt. Let me cry. Daddy never let me cry. I know Daddy isn't here any more but you sometimes carry him around. I want to cry when I'm sad.

I will let you cry when you're sad. I will try not to worry what people think or say. I will love you even if you hurt.

That's right. I only hurt to get your attention. I love you and want to work for you but you need to listen to what I'm feeling. I will give you warning signs. Tune in. Listen.

I feel more relaxed now. I will try to work with you.

Don't try. We already have too much trying. Just be you and I'll be me and now what someone else wants. Just let me flow in to the stream that is the bloodstream and I will be in natural rhythm if you don't disturb it. You pick on me too much. Leave me be and let me flow the way I am supposed to. Goodbye.

In this dialogue, Jill (the adult) became a Wise Counselor and Nurturing Parent to her own Inner Child, who was "trapped" in her headache. She discovered that she had played victim all her life. Actually, her Inner Child was the victim and by repressing its existence she had unwittingly perpetuated her own limitations. She decided to stop being a victim, started paying attention to her own goals and following through with them. Jill studied acting, became a professional, and has appeared on television. It all started with a headache, but it led to making her dreams come true.

(Chapter 6, The Power of Your Other Hand)

Lucia

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