Exploring Creativity as a Healing Force for Collective Trauma

I had planned on having a guest join to talk about creativity . I know , last week on the other podcast , I talked about creativity with my friends at Core , essential Values and how do we promote creativity in kids . And as I was thinking about what I would say on my own about creativity , I sort of was like , well , maybe I'll just skip this week .

And then I started reading a few articles from the American Psychological Association , which APA , is our national organization . It has all sorts of resources . In fact , if you are not a clinician , there would be lots of things to kind of poke around and read on the American Psychological Association website .

And I was reading this article from APA president , thelma Bryant . Dr Thelma Bryant , she was sharing about medicines for healing collective trauma , and creativity was on there , and so I thought , well , maybe we should talk about creativity after all . So I want to share a little bit about what Dr Bryant shared in her article .

I'm going to link it in the description here also , so you can look at it yourself and read all of what she has to say . It's a very short article so it shouldn't take too long , and I just think it's interesting for us to think about , particularly around this issue of collective trauma . And so , just as a brief , let's get on the same page .

Collective trauma is really that sort of impact that we as a group or community or a group of people feel after experiencing some sort of traumatic experience . So collective trauma might involve a small group like your family , who may be experienced this collective trauma like a house fire or a death in the family .

It may be an entire group of people , like certain marginalized groups that experience discrimination on a daily basis , some of us who are experiencing the continued impact of the pandemic , mass shootings , war , right .

So sometimes when we think about trauma , there's a lot of conversation around trauma , and these last really probably the last decade , and it is great news for our field that people are starting to talk more about it .

And what it also tells us is that many of us are experiencing ongoing trauma responses because of both our personal trauma , right Things that we have experienced in our own life individually , but then also the collective trauma of everything that we have experienced as a society , as a group , as kind of whatever group that you yourself are a part of , and so

actually , I want to just share with you one creativity was on this list that Dr Bryant talked about in terms of medicines for healing collective trauma . But the first medicine that Dr Bryant shares is that the first medicine is truth . The first medicine is truth .

I was really , I sort of was really shocked , not really shocked , but just sort of like wow , that's bold and true . So in her article she says the first medicine is truth . We must face the reality of our wounds in order to heal . Denial will not save us . So , as you are a listener and you're thinking , oh well , sometimes denial is actually happy for me .

Sometimes I just don't necessarily wanna know the truth . Or you know , I've faced the truth and it's been more painful . I've faced the truth and I've gotten worse . I've faced the truth and it's been really hard . All of those things may be true , and I think to Dr Bryant's point , true , healing comes from facing that truth .

That doesn't mean that you can't have partial healing by just sort of pretending like nothing is going wrong and there's nothing that is on fire around you . But I really appreciated this being the first medicine and , in fact , just I really appreciated the entire take here around this idea of medicines . Right , it actually is what drew me into the article .

It was a little bit of click bait for me but I was like oh , seven medicines for collective trauma . I really am curious about that . What are the medicines that a fellow psychologist would talk about when we are talking about collective trauma ? And it wasn't exactly what I expected . And I really appreciated that .

The fifth medicine on this list is creativity , and I think that this is part of what I was hoping to kind of share with you all this week that creativity really is great for the soul , great for healing , great for kind of stretching our brains , our comfort zones , in ways that generally we don't necessarily do as much .

I think about clients that I've worked with , I think about my own life , where the day in and day out of life doesn't really push me in any kind of creative way .

Right , I'm trying to do as many things in a routine based way , so I don't have to think all that much , and I was struck this morning , as I was thinking about this , that , yeah , I think there is always power and there's always comfort in doing things like you've always done , right , the comfort of a routine , the comfort of knowing what is coming .

And then I was reminded this morning of the joy that comes with creativity , the excitement , the relief , the refreshment that comes with creativity , right , that when we can do something just a little bit outside of the norm and we can do things that really charge us to be creative , right .

So her examples here are dance , right , speak , design , reduce your stress , reconnect with your soul . Just really appreciated that . So , as you are thinking today , on a Monday , right ? So today's Monday , not Friday , sorry , friends who were looking for a new episode last week , I am a little behind it .

So think about what this week can look like if you are gonna push yourself towards just one moment of creativity . That might mean drawing up a picture on your whiteboard with your dry erase markers . Maybe that is as simple as picking a new color of your dry erase marker .

Maybe that's journaling , it's writing , it's creating poetry , it's scheduling a time to hang out with your friends . Maybe you find a local dance studio . Maybe you're gonna do some art in some way with your kids , with your spouse , with your partner , with your family . Maybe it's music .

Maybe you're gonna create music , you're gonna listen to music , you're gonna rock out to music in your bedroom . If we're thinking about Continual healing of collective trauma , maybe that that we have experienced , maybe it's individualized trauma . Let's take a step towards creativity . Let's see if that fifth medicine is a part of what can be our Healing .

This week , I'd love to hear from you . I'd love to hear if this has been powerful for you in any way . Maybe you are a very creative person and you have found power in this , and maybe you're on the other end . Hey , beth , I am not a creative person and I don't know how to do this . Would love to hear from you , beth , at makewordsmatterforgoodcom .

This week , I'm also gonna share with you what's coming . So the fall season is finally here . I mean , it's not actually fall , it's like 90 degrees here where I'm at but the fall season of the podcast is coming .

I'm gonna share with you all of the great episodes I have coming up with , all of the amazing guests that I've been working with all summer , and this season is when you're not gonna want to miss . It's gonna be great .

So if there's anything that you would like to hear more about , like to be a guest on the show , would love to have you fill out the form that's at the bottom of the description and , as always , stay safe and stay well out there , friends , and go be creative . Ciao .