Making collages during trauma

Introduction

I (Auke) love making collages in all shapes and sizes, using various materials such as in the video below with liquid paper, but also with photos and texts from magazines and prints that I create myself. Within the field of art therapy, it is also a technique that is widely used. But did you know that it also has enormous benefits when it comes to processing trauma?

Fragmentation 

Trauma is often associated with fragmentation of the Self and requires the restoration of connections, both with your own inner and outer world.

Bessel van der Kolk says about that:

“Traumatized people feel chronically unsafe in their bodies: the past lives on in the form of nagging inner discomfort. Their bodies are constantly bombarded by visceral warning signals, and in an attempt to control these processes, they often become experts at ignoring their gut feelings and numbing the awareness of what is playing out inside. They learn to hide from themselves.”

Apply injury

There is a parallel between creating a collage, cutting and assembling different elements, and a traumatic injury that needs to be stitched together to heal. 

I came across something very interesting article by Anila Babla. An art therapist who studied the effects of the collage technique, specifically in the context of trauma processing. In the video, I list the reasons why I believe the collage technique should be used as part of trauma processing. Including examples.