The “Dress the Mess” research thesis project is a resource of advocacy for the healing properties found within art therapy. As a survivor of Lyme disease as a young adult, the mental and emotional trauma that was experienced has led to a passion for helping others find hope in their healing journey. As the research shows, art therapy gives individuals a voice in the darkness through creative outlets of self-expression. It is terrifying when to me when my body turned on itself and began to attack the immune, muscular, and nervous systems. An outlet to release the trauma was vital to my healing success. I discovered that no matter the root of the trauma a person experiences, the feeling, fear, and insecurities they are dealing with have the protentional for improvement when there is a resource outlet. Art therapy inspired me to walk through the door of healing.
Considering the problem, I desired to resolve through my MFA thesis, there was no question about the area I wanted to focus on within this paper. As a two-year-old toddler, I drowned in melted snow on the top of a swimming pool cover. I had to be life-flighted to a Children’s hospital in Virginia. At the age of thirteen, I sat in a doctor’s office in Texas, and I was told that I had Juvenal Rheumatoid Arthritis; the symptoms could include the loss of all my hair from methotrexate, a chemo drug, the loss of the ability to walk, no children in my future and the possibility of early death. It was traumatic for a girl who had just made it to her prime years of becoming a teenager. Add a private Christian school teacher whose sole mission it appears to a young girl was to destroy her faith in her creative side through harsh words of “you will never be an artist”, “you are retarded” and “you have no creativity.” Words are harsh, adding to the emotional trauma I was dealing with; I was losing hope for a bright future.
At the age of sixteen, the methotrexate was no longer working. The immune system had turned on itself, and I began having allergic reactions to everything, including sunshine and shower water. I could only eat grapes, chicken, and green beans and drink pure raw cranberry juice. Turning to Holistic medicine, I soon discovered that arthritis was a symptom of Lyme disease. However, since Lyme disease was not addressed in the early stages, it became chronic and debilitating. My elbows locked up like a barbie doll, and over the next couple of years, my knees would begin to lock, placing me in a wheelchair and making it very hard to get out of bed.
It was here that I as a young adult, turned to art and graphic design and found hope, healing, and restored faith in my creativity. The emotional scars that the many traumatic events through my developing years had left on me found an outlet for healing. The passion behind this thesis aims to educate on the benefits of art therapy. The research has inspired me and allowed me to work as an advocate of healing through art therapy. It has given me a better understanding of the need for art therapy. Social media campaigns and guerilla marketing has shown me I am not alone and that there is an interest among young adults seeking solutions to healing from their traumatic experiences.
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