Moving From the Head to the Body: Answering the Call for Integration

A piece of autoethnographic research that culminated in performance poetry, this capstone project documents the year long research journey taken as a student of art therapy living with chronic pain to answer the call from within to move from the head and into the body. A combination of a performance poem, visual art, and music that offers, through following the stages of trauma therapy, a redefinition of illness and body narrative, and demonstrates the coming home to self and nature through ecological and focusing-oriented art therapy. This capstone project highlights the value of getting in touch with and making friends with the emotions and pain that may be caught within the body and offers a foundation for moving forward as an attuned art therapist in training.