Summary: <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> 3 Ways Art Therapy Helps With Trauma<br> Carin Fausett is an artist, who has received honors and invitations to speak from some of the top museums in Utah. Her story is interesting and inspiring.<br> Carin: I think I relate to a lot of people. Difficult childhood, I was visually and hearing impaired so that isolated me a lot. That became a problem later on in a marriage where I needed to know how to communicate, I needed to know how to solve issues instead of just hiding. It made the situation more difficult. I needed to use what I did have, which was the artistic ability to communicate to study addiction, to study recovery.<br> Art can help with trauma by:<br> <br> * It can help express emotion.<br> * It can be empowering.<br> * It helps with self-efficacy.<br> <br> Anne: I don’t meet a lot of recovery artists every day. I looked at your art and it was so beautiful and moving. Carin how did you begin your life of learning about addiction and coping?<br> What Type Of Trauma Can Art Therapy Be Used With?<br> Carin: It was kind of baptism by fire. I got married. I thought I had a good foundation, only to find out that my husband’s family had a lot of issues that I wasn’t aware of. This led to him living the way he thought that relationships and families were supposed to be. It involved lying. It involved covering things up.<br> It involved a lot of unhealthy coping mechanisms that were very hurtful and that led to a lot of trauma, where I would put up walls, isolate myself even further, not communicate. Of course, nothing would get solved, very dysfunctional. It became a really bad cycle, because I needed to take responsibility for my actions, but I didn’t know how. This led to my shopping, eating, anger. Really, not healthy cycles.<br> Anne: It sounds like these patterns of addiction and betrayal trauma started showing up in your family. Up until we met, you had processed these in the context of codependency. When I wrote you, very interested in your art, and I said, “We use the trauma model.” You said, "That is very helpful."<br> Tell me about how the patterns showed up in your family, and then what you thought of them in the context of codependency, and where you are at now, with this first introduction to the trauma model.<br> Why Can Art Therapy Be Useful For Trauma?<br> Carin: I did notice a cycle of betrayal that resulted in trauma. This unseen wound, which led to PTSD symptoms within myself, which created a wall within myself. I was not able to receive or give love.<br> Anne: Did you notice that with lots of people around you? Did you start forming this wall with friends and family and other people?<br> Carin: I became very selective in who I would talk with. I would function, I would talk to people, but I wouldn’t let people in. I was very good at just doing what was expected, getting along, making things smooth, but I was not good at being personal and talking to people in a real way. I became very non-authentic for a long time and it really hurt me. It hurt my art. It hurt my relationship. Just a few years ago, it came to a head where I could see what I had done. It happened when my son, he came clean about his addiction. It really hit me that things had to change.<br> Obviously, we can’t change other people, we can only change ourselves. That meant I had to do some really deep work on who I was, what I was doing, and why. I had to get to the root of it. When I was able to do that,
