Body-Positive Therapeutic Workshops
For a long time I have thought that body painting could have an extra layer of meaning, if it were helping somebody to express and process their feelings about their own body. I have done a few projects where people were processing miscarriage, mastectomy and breast cancer, and physical changes due to being on dialysis. This particular project is different in that the only thing “wrong” is how we think about ourselves. The participants in this group have “regular” bodies, no major health problems, And still have issues to wrestle with, as most people do, to really accept and be at peace with our bodies.
This is a collaboration between Lauren Reppy who is a psychotherapist, and myself. She has lead other groups about body positivity in the past, and was intrigued when I suggested a therapeutic body painting component.
On a Friday evening, a small group of women met in a backyard around a campfire, and learned some new ways of thinking about our bodies. With Lauren‘s guidance, we started to inspect, explore, investigate, remember our own attitudes. The next morning we gathered again for more education, dancing, listening to thoughtful body-positivity songs, guided journaling, sharing, and drawing, as we went deeper inside our own beliefs about our bodies.
This culminated in me doing a painting on each participant’s particular body part they were working on. The paintings came from their own thoughts, my interpretation, seeing what colors and placements felt right to them in the moment. Lauren was on hand to help process whatever was coming up in the moment or afterwards.
The best part, in my opinion, was the moment when each woman stepped out of the small office, where I was painting, into the yard, where the bigger group could see them, and receive them with excitement, and they could show off their unique art piece. Each of them seemed aglow!!
For this particular piece, this person described feeling rigid on the sides of her belly: historically she had been expected to hold herself tightly. We started with her desire to bring her belly some warmth and love, and we chose these colors along with the heart.
As we got around to her sides, she was looking for a way to describe flowing, graceful movement, and we came up with this kelp. I really like this one, and I especially love the way it, and she moved together!
I feel humbled and honored to have been trusted this way, and grateful to have been a part of this workshop for my own relationship with my body.
“Thank you Brenda for your gentleness, curiosity, openness and honesty, it was a true honor to have you create art on my body, thank you for listening to the curves of my body and soul.”
“Thank you so much for infusing beauty, tenderness, and light into a process of making peace and inviting repair of distorted ways of seeing ourselves. Thank you for creating a vessel for intimacy, exploration, and release.”
It is our intention to do more groups like this. Let me know if you might like to be part of one!