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Art therapy helps abuse victims heal

May 22, 2009 12:35 am

BY AMY FLOWERS UMBLE

A local artist wakes up most nights, with hands itching to work--to write, to sketch.

Sometimes she composes poetry. Other times it's prose in a journal.

About every other night, her restless hands draw other hands.

In the beginning, these sketched hands belonged to others. Some didn't protect her when she needed it. Some abused her for years, starting when she was 8.

But lately, the artist--who remains unnamed to protect her identity as a sexual assault victim--picks up graphite pencils and draws her own hands.

And in one recent work, titled "Lucky," she drew hands "reaching out in hope, not asking for help."

The artist entered this piece into "The Art of Surviving" exhibit, which showcases work by victims of sexual assault. The show includes work from artists around the state.

This piece is among the exhibit's first local work, in addition to some art by Carol Olson, director of the Rappahannock Area Council Against Sexual Assault.

The show will run through May 30 at the Fredericksburg Athenaeum on Amelia Street.

The artist hopes her work will inspire other victims of sexual assault to find healing--and a voice.

"Abuse forced me into silence, and art has let me find my voice again," she said. "One way or another, you have to break your own silence."

Abused as a child, she bottled up the experience and didn't seek help. From the outside, most people couldn't see her pain.

She said she did well in school, married, had children and had a successful career.

But she also had panic attacks, sleeplessness and exhaustion.

She turned to RCASA for help. The agency had just started a trauma therapy program, offering intensive counseling and art therapy.

EASING THE PAIN

"When dealing with trauma, the goal is to move the incident from the right side of the brain to the left," said Beth Parker, a trauma counselor at RCASA. "The left side works as a file box, to hold the memory. And the right is where your senses and emotions stay."

Drawing, painting and sketching the memories and emotions of abuse help transfer the trauma from the right side to the left, Parker said.

The woman wasn't so sure about the neurology initially. But she loved art, so she gave it a try. At first, she simply found solace in expression.

"It just allowed me this wonderful avenue to open my heart up a little," she said. "Otherwise, I keep it bricked up and behind walls."

When she began therapy, memories of the abuse consumed her thoughts, swirling around her head in fragments.

In therapy, she draws each memory in order, with a beginning, middle and end. She, Parker and art therapy intern Kelly Hartland tack the pictures on a wall, and the artist relives the story.

"Sometimes, I think, 'This is worse than when I started therapy,'" she said.

Sleepless nights and severe panic attacks often follow.

Then, after a few days, she puts the story away in a mental filing cabinet and moves on.

It is a long, slow, often laborious process.

"But this is giving me my first hope, in my whole life, since the trauma," she said. "It's giving me a hope to realize there is a chance to overcome the trauma."

Amy Flowers Umble: 540/735-1973
Email: aumble@freelancestar.com