I mentioned in a previous blog that I was excited about an art therapy technique called SoulCollage. SoulCollage was created about 30 years ago by a psychotherapist named Seena Frost. She was interested in combining creativity, insight, and healing for her clients who felt they were not creative.
Art therapists have used the collage process in their practice for years. The SoulCollage process is a bit different in that it there are no words involved and only images. In addition, the collage is limited to a 5” x 8” card consisting of only 3 to 4 carefully selected pictures. Each person makes his or her own personal deck of cards with no set number of cards. The photograph above is one card from my personal deck. I made this card when my mother was dying.
In SoulCollage we interpret our own cards. Even as a therapist, I would not interpret a client’s card. The images are selected on an intuitive personal basis and have meaning only for the individual. There is a phrase that is used when you look at the card and are attempting to glean information from the imagery. The phrase is, “I am the one who…” When we consult our SoulCollage cards, we use the phrase, “I am the one who…” to begin speaking from the image on our own card and to answer our own questions.
As an example, for this card when I use the phrase “I am the one who…”, I finish the phrase “I am the one who is really scared about the unknown journey of my mother’s impending death.” This helped me realize that fear played a role for me in my interactions with her. At different times when consulting the card, the meaning and interpretation will change.
SoulCollage reminds us that all the answers are inside of you already. It helps us recognize these answers and bring clarity to confusing situations in our lives. Sharing SoulCollage cards in community is an important part of the process. SoulCollage brings people together in creativity, acceptance, and self-reflection.This is just a very basic introduction to the process. There are many more aspects and levels to SoulCollage. To learn more you can visit SoulCollage.com or contact me for an individual or group introduction to the process.