April Newsletter
We define horror in trauma as experiences in which we witness something deeply disturbing that signals to the nervous system that the world is not safe. What I think is happening to a lot of us right now is that we're getting chronic, low-dose exposure to exactly this kind of material — with no context, no interruption, and no discharge. The accumulation doesn't disappear. It settles. And there is a meaningful difference between a nervous system frozen in accumulated horror and one that is moving, even slowly, toward completion.
What Is Creative Arts Therapy?
I didn't know it then, but I was already doing something like therapy. As a kid who grew up without a lot, that box of Crayola crayons was everything — pure possibility in perfect rows. Art has always been my escape, my mood shifter, my comforter. It's why I became a creative arts therapist. I understood the power of it intuitively. The science came later.
What I know now is that for some people, creative arts therapy isn't just helpful — it's necessary. When trauma lives in the body and outside of language, talking about it has a ceiling. Creative arts therapy works differently. It works with the whole person.