Tick, tock, tick, tock, goes the antipsychotic clock.
Giving the finger to PTSD
Comfort blanket…?
In hiding from the memories
When stuck in the airport between flights, one must draw angels drinking coffee and munching on macadamia cookies…
Finished drawing of my older self reaching through the bubble of the past to connect with my younger self.
Trauma jpegs, parental criticism jpegs
Watching my waves of emotion from the safe distance of the sea bed.
Visualisations
Through visualisations with my EMDR therapist, I slowly but surely started to combat the demons of my past. Here are some of the drawings I did to capture my realisations and learning from the therapy sessions.
I tend to draw an initial ‘scribble sketch’ when an idea pops into my head for a drawing. This slowly develops into a second, third and maybe fourth preliminary sketch taking into consideration the composition and meaning of what I want to achieve. Since most of this work is self-portrait focused, I also take photos of myself in poses suited to my ideas, to use as reference points. When I am satisfied with the final sketch, I move onto more serious drawing: Polychromos black pencil in hand, natural light and a good sharpener is all I need to get started.
Visualisations were incredibly powerful in helping me process trauma, and I highly recommend EMDR to anyone in similar need!