Art therapy Archives

Showing up for creativity

Showing up for creativity, what a challenge! There are so many days I just don’t make something, write for my blog, paint, decorate my house, … You and I don’t have the perfect life after all. We have a lot of duties, chores, a difficult situation in life sometimes. Anyway, life can get in the way of what you would love to do all day: create.

‘I can’t move forward enough because I don’t have time’ was a very prominent thought. I decided to let that go. The thought itself was a crippling one. Ofcourse, time is an issue, but the thought was slowing me down more than the issue itself. If my blog and creativity are so important to me, I just have to MAKE time. And so I did. Read more →

Visual journaling for business: collages

I like these early evening hours at the end of Winter. Not yet dark, with a very quiet atmosphere here in the woods and the perfect moment to write. I want to tell a little bit about my collages, a creative outlet that starts in school and so often stays exactly there: in school. But not in our house. I’m 38 years old, but I still love making collages and I do take them very seriously. I glue them in what I call my ‘visual journal’. Read more →

Painting furniture as art therapy

Many years ago I was a teacher at a university college, teaching communication and writing skills for social workers. The first day I walked into that school I was given a ‘buddy’, another teacher that could help me getting used to the new job and school. She, her name was An, was also an art therapist. It sparked my interest, it inspired me without really knowing what the meaning was of my sudden interest. After all, I didn’t consider myself as creative or artsy at that point. I was a teacher and a researcher for local governments involving a lot of statistics. I guess you can see why I didn’t understand the meaning of being inspired by an art therapist? It felt like it came out of nowhere. Read more →

Emilia: painting furniture with intuition

Today I would love to introduce you to Emilia, my newest Swedish cabinet. I gave her this name because I couldn’t figure out how to paint her. A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post about how to listen to intuition when decorating. You can read it here, if you missed that one. I showed you an exercise to get in touch with your intuition when interior decorating. Read more →

How to listen to intuition when decorating

At several points in my life I had to take major decisions: should I resign from my 9 to 5-job and start a creative business? Should I move to Sweden? Should I sell my business? Should I start a coaching business? Should I start a blog? I managed my way through all those decisions but oh boy, did I feel some decision anxiety! The one thing that helped me through all this was intuition. I learned how to trust my instincts, to follow my heart.