WENDY LaGREEN, PsyD
I have found that Psychotherapy is an artform. There is a feeling in the room when the moment of insight occurs. During 2020, Covid-19 created its own form of overwhelming stress. For the first time I had small children coming in with adult feelings of fear and anxiety about what was ahead. Isolation and the switch to online learning was creating behavior difficulties. My adults were worried about subsistence, change, and their families.
As we worked with these issues through artmaking, journaling, and mindfulness, we began to create a renewed sense of confidence and hope. Hope was what had been missing...
In 2021 a renewed sense of empowerment began to rise. Families found ways to heal by going out in nature, creating, and practicing mindfulness. Through the intense and frightening time, they had spent more time together.
Building Life, Building Hope, Building Home
(Mixed Media; Artistic Photograph; Acrylics)
During 2021, I found myself watching old, abandoned buildings on YouTube. Visually, I was intrigued with the way life was suspended in a different time period. I started photographing a gutted cabin my family built in the 1950’s. The roof structure was constructed differently than today.
At the same time, for some unusual reason, the birds returned to our home and began nesting in cactus pots of all things. We had no nesting in 2020. A tiny hummingbird built an exquisite nest on a big ficus limb that draped across our door. It was high enough to miss our heads but waved and bobbed in the wind. The bird laid two eggs and sat on them bobbing and rocking for a few weeks. When they were big enough, they began to peek their heads out of the top of the nest.
Carl Jung spent many years at “Jung’s Tower” in Switzerland. He created The Red Book, a collection of his writings and art. Jung spoke of walking amongst the trees, and the flowers and how healing this was. He found meaning through building a simpler life and he felt the stone home is where his soul was nurtured.