This is the last installment of my dialogue with an image which I painted in therapy in the summer 2012, when I was experiencing severe pain in my back and neck from a childhood injury. The insights I was able to receive were profound, and I believe that the techniques used to explore the Self through images used by Expressive Arts Therapy are incredibly valuable.
Green stem:
I am the neck/spinal column/nervous system
I feel the pulsing and flowing of the communication between the body and the consciousness
I need to be unobstructed, I need to flow freely
Pain gets in the way
My nature supports me, my nature is to help the communication and help every part to grow and nurture
I trust life – every experience
What opens me is direct communication between the experience and the body and the consciousness, because the body informs the consciousness and the experiences of the consciousness and the body gives a framework for the experiences
I know the whole life cycle
I know what life is, and impermanence
I know how to die, to stop existing
The experiences will happen – that part cannot be controlled. But the response to that experience, that can be chosen
Pain will happen whether you like it or not. How to respond to the pain is the important part
To the pain:
I am not judging you. You are just an experience, neither good nor bad
In my therapy practice I have observed this kind of powerful insight being expressed by my clients using a variety of techniques that allow a “wiser” part of the self to be expressed. And the experience of listening to this wiser part of the Self is nothing short of transformational.