Art of Healing the Self (AHTS) Program
Vision
Vision
- To empower people grappling with the effects of loss, trauma and grief to become their own therapists through strategies inspired by the literary and expressive arts and mindfulness/meditation
- To share lived and researched knowledge of loss, trauma and grief, practical and literary/expressive arts based strategies and techniques that empowers people to understand, make meaning of and heal from highly distressing and chaotic life experiences
AHTS Program Summary
Art of Healing The Self program is based on the notion that the self is made up of many parts, comprising our inner world of thoughts (cognitions), feelings (emotions), bodies/senses (physical), assumptions/values/beliefs (spiritual), and our outer world of behaviours and interactions with other people (social) and our personal histories.
When we experience an overwhelming or traumatic life experience such as the death of someone we love, illness, abuse and violence, relationship breakdown, the subsequent grief we experience affects all parts of our self – physical, emotional, cognitive, social, spiritual. We can feel a range of emotions such as sadness, loneliness, emptiness, despair, anger, bitterness, hurt, anxiety, depression. Physically, we can experience bodily tension, chronic aches and pain, nausea, tightness in the throat and chest, recurring illnesses and infections. Cognitively and spiritually we may grapple with a lost sense of identity and a questioning of the meaning and purpose of life. Socially, in a post loss world, we can feel isolated from family and friends, who do not understand our loss, trauma and grief.
Although loss and trauma are choice-less events, we can choose how we grieve and cope with events that are beyond our control. AHTS program offers people the upper hand or the ACES in the lottery of life through strategies and techniques that engages and nurtures all parts of the self – physical, emotional, cognitive, social, spiritual – according to four key principles that aids understanding, meaning making and healing when living with loss, trauma and grief:
AHTS Program Content - Aims and Chapter Topics
Principle One: Awareness of the Self
Aim: To learn about loss, trauma, meaning making and grief and to use this knowledge to gain a better awareness and understanding of personal experiences of loss, trauma and grief
Chapter Topics:
Aim: To learn self-care strategies/activities and to apply these on a regular basis to ease the intense emotions of trauma and grief
Chapter Topic:
Aim: To learn the techniques of expressive/creative/narrative forms of personal writing and to apply these to express personal experiences of loss, trauma and grief
Chapter Topic:
Aim: To learn self-counselling strategies and to apply these to gain deeper insight into personal experiences of loss, trauma and grief
Chapter Topic:
Art of Healing The Self program is based on the notion that the self is made up of many parts, comprising our inner world of thoughts (cognitions), feelings (emotions), bodies/senses (physical), assumptions/values/beliefs (spiritual), and our outer world of behaviours and interactions with other people (social) and our personal histories.
When we experience an overwhelming or traumatic life experience such as the death of someone we love, illness, abuse and violence, relationship breakdown, the subsequent grief we experience affects all parts of our self – physical, emotional, cognitive, social, spiritual. We can feel a range of emotions such as sadness, loneliness, emptiness, despair, anger, bitterness, hurt, anxiety, depression. Physically, we can experience bodily tension, chronic aches and pain, nausea, tightness in the throat and chest, recurring illnesses and infections. Cognitively and spiritually we may grapple with a lost sense of identity and a questioning of the meaning and purpose of life. Socially, in a post loss world, we can feel isolated from family and friends, who do not understand our loss, trauma and grief.
Although loss and trauma are choice-less events, we can choose how we grieve and cope with events that are beyond our control. AHTS program offers people the upper hand or the ACES in the lottery of life through strategies and techniques that engages and nurtures all parts of the self – physical, emotional, cognitive, social, spiritual – according to four key principles that aids understanding, meaning making and healing when living with loss, trauma and grief:
- Awareness of the self
- Care of the self
- Expression of the self
- Self-counselling
AHTS Program Content - Aims and Chapter Topics
Principle One: Awareness of the Self
Aim: To learn about loss, trauma, meaning making and grief and to use this knowledge to gain a better awareness and understanding of personal experiences of loss, trauma and grief
Chapter Topics:
- Awareness of the Changed Self - forms of loss, significant loss, secondary losses, ritualising loss
- Awareness of the Traumatised Self – definition of trauma, causes of trauma, common reactions of trauma
- Awareness of the Meaning Seeking Self - shattered fundamental assumptions/beliefs, revising fundamental assumptions/beliefs, re-visioning the self, meaning making through personal storytelling
- Awareness of the Grieving Self – definition of grief, common reactions of grief, current theories of grief, complicated/complex grief, disenfranchised grief
Aim: To learn self-care strategies/activities and to apply these on a regular basis to ease the intense emotions of trauma and grief
Chapter Topic:
- Caring for the Self – practical activities, grounding/mindfulness technique, meditation technique
Aim: To learn the techniques of expressive/creative/narrative forms of personal writing and to apply these to express personal experiences of loss, trauma and grief
Chapter Topic:
- Expressing the Self through Personal Writing – therapeutic value of personal writing, journal, unsent letter, personal narrative, techniques to enhance writing
Aim: To learn self-counselling strategies and to apply these to gain deeper insight into personal experiences of loss, trauma and grief
Chapter Topic:
- Self-counselling through Reflection and Research – reflective reading, reflective writing, researched-based writing