EMPOWERING VICTIMS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT
HEALING WITH EXPRESSIVE HEALING
This phase of recovery for most survivors lasts a lifetime, although it will get easier to manage with time. Processing means that the victim integrates the rape into their life experience, into the fabric of their identity. In processing, rape becomes a part of who the victim is, whether that’s who they want to be or not. The victim doesn’t necessarily need to “make peace” with the experience, but they do need to regain their power in relation to it, to understand it, to see its impact on their life and their person.
Expressive Healing is here to create a safe environment for sexual assault victims to heal. As we are well aware of, not everyone is as artistically inclined as others, so we have found some projects that anyone can do and submit given to us by an art therapist named Dr. Debbie Daniels Mohring. These are the activies:
CREATE A VISION BOARD
Flip through magazines/newspapers/catalogs and find photos of places/situations, words, or phrases that you hope to be part of your future. Collect these and make your own collage of positive hopes for your future.
ILLUSTRATE YOUR "BOTTLE OF EMOTIONS"
Think about what the bottle looks like: What is its shape? How does it look inside versus on the outside? What emotions are closer to the top of the bottle versus deep at the bottom? Are there any colors that you can associate with what these emotions feel like?
OVERCOMING NEGATIVE THOUGHTS
Find a large piece of cardboard and two paint colors of your choice. First, either paint or write out any negative words or phrases about yourself that keep recurring throughout your thoughts. Once you feel like you have released enough of these words/phrases, find a different color of paint and splatter paint all over the words you wrote or painted. You can continue to splatter paint until you feel physically satisfied or until the negative thoughts you wrote are completely covered with the splattered paint.
LET OUT YOUR ANGER
Find a canvas and buy 3-5 different colors of paint. Write down a letter to the person who sexually assulted you and let out everything you need to say or have been holding in towards that person. Once you feel you are done writing, take the paint and just squirt it all over the letter. Turn the canvas so the paints will begin mixing on the canvas. Dont stop turning the canvas and adding paint until the letter is completly covered.