A Glimpse Into A Client's Creative Process - shared with consent

During my visit to Mary Franklin Smith at Light of Mind, I had the opportunity to witness some sessions with some of her clients who generously accepted to open the space to me. My visit was supported by Arts Council Malta.

One of the people I met in this context was Robert Dunn. He used my presence there as an opportunity to acknowlegde and share the journey of his process and he took this also as a step to share his rich creative process out into the world.

Here onwards are key pieces he chose to share with his own words documenting their significance to him as he progressed in his dramatherapy journey of recovery.

Robert’s words and process:

WHY AM I SHARING THIS?

Initially upon being asked if I was comfortable for my pieces to be shared my knee jerk reaction was "Oh I don't know, is it really worth sharing? There are people out there who have probably come up with far more elegant ways of expressing their experience of eating disorders and poor mental health in general". But after careful consideration I've decided that I think it's important I do; if there is a non-zero chance that someone who is in the throws of Depression, Chronic anxiety or even an eating disorder see this post and connect and resonate with it in someway then I know I would have helped. Why? Because the same thing happened to me about 7 years ago when I by chance saw an interview with the actor Chistopher Eccleston on The One Show where he revealed his personal struggles with Anorexia....years later I would then go on to meet Christopher Eccleston (again by chance) where I leaped at the opportunity to tell him about my own struggles and how him being vulnerable in sharing his experience helped me-but that's a story for another day!... As soon as I considered how helpful it could be to some people I felt eager and a little excited to share my pieces even despite there still being some trepidation.

 I have decided to share 4 pieces (3 artwork and 1 poem) that I think best encapsulate my ongoing journey in arts led therapy".

UNAMED

I created this at the start of my arts therapy journey. I had no understanding of who I was or why I was the way I was so naturally this made me feel very frustrated and honestly lonely. The only way I could communicate my lived experience to my drama therapist was through metaphors...so she prompted me to represent the metaphor visually; this is what I created.

 The wilting flower on the hill is me shrouded in a dark black entity that is infecting the flower deep into it's roots (my mind). Obscured by the entity is the suggestion of an intense eternal light  some of which manages to escape but misses the flower. The world looks alien and otherworldly because of how alien the concept of arts therapy was to me at that time.

A Soul Between two thorns

When I created this I was finally beginning to get a clearer understanding of the ‘many part-selves’ psychological framework (often used in drama therapy)...and by extension my own psyche. As the penny dropped I felt compelled to represent my own personal understanding of it visually.

 The eyes are in fact a birds-eye view of two flowers one of which is shrouded in thorns the other neatly surrounded by two thorns. The thorns represent our thoughts, habits, beliefs and also stories we believe about ourselves. By presenting the piece as 2 ill-defined halves of a whole I wanted to show that poor and healthy mental wellbeing are not as binary as we might think and in fact it is always shifting, changing and evolving just as human beings do. I'm hoping it serves as a reminder of both the fragility and flexibility of mental health.

Platos Painter

I made this when I was finally just beginning to get back out into the world but was still very much living inside (and a slave to) my own thought-created reality. Frustratingly It felt like I was deprived of the full human experience (and to be honest still do to some extent) that I knew others had but felt powerless to attain it. This piece works on a few levels but ultimately by adapting Plato's allegory of the cave I wanted to visualise in one image how when caught up and engaged only with one's thoughts, beliefs and stories you are blinded to and cut off from the harmonious, rich complexity of the world thus limiting what you experience (paint) and what you believe to be as true (Large insurmountable Canvas).

 It also serves as a commentary on the creativity of originality vs the triteness of derivative iterations.

Ode To The Lost

This was the very first poem I wrote at the start of my journey learning about the unique psychological framework of arts therapy…but whilst my mind was still very much filled with performing O.C.D rituals. As I learned more about this new way of looking at myself I began to have a lot of re-occuring thoughts of positive, rationalised statements which was my way of making sense of this new alien concept...However due to my desperate situation at the time these re-occuring thoughts soon began to become a crutch I was dependant on, so much so these thoughts (or 'Mantras') began to take on a life of their own as a Ritualistic O.C.D behaviour I felt I had to repeat to myself internally constantly In order to get and stay 'better'.

 It got so overwhelming and exhausting that I felt I just had to write the Mantras down in order to get them out of my head. As I collected these 'Mantras' I began to notice that a lot of them rhymed with one another, so I used them to form the basis of the poem you see above.

OUTRO

I hope in sharing this it helps demysitify and put a spotlight on the importance of lesser known forms of therapy. I hope it may also change people's pre-concieved ideas about what arts therapy is and the importance of creative arts in general as a tool to improve mental wellbeing.

Lou's visit to Light of Mind in the UK where she met Robert Dunn, was supported by Arts Council Malta.