This past year marks an experience where many of us have emerged with a deeper understanding of our need for connection. For individuals experiencing violence, it has been a journey often fraught with fear and additional uncertainty. For advocates, it has been a time of readjusting our work to meet the increased and changing needs of people experiencing violence, but also of realizing our own vulnerabilities and finding new ways to stay connected and sustain ourselves.

Over the past few months, Vermont Network staff, advocates and partners have partnered with an organization called A Window Between Worlds to learn about using expressive art with those who have experienced violence. A Window Between Worlds is a national organization dedicated to empowering individuals and communities impacted by violence and trauma through a transformative healing arts program.

The Vermont Network is no stranger to the healing powers of the arts and also supports a focused project called Healing Together where children have the opportunity to engage in trauma-informed art experiences with their incarcerated or formerly incarcerated parent to build resilience and connection.

After learning with the Window Between Worlds cohort, I wanted to experience the process for myself so I asked my daughter, who is away at college, to participate with me. She agreed and we picked out an art exercise called, ‘The ‘Monster in Me’ which asks participants to create art that represents an emotion that we tend not to show others. Growing up, we would frequently create art together so this felt like a good fit for us.

We set a time and gathered together on zoom. We started first with some movement – stretched our faces into big yawns, sighs, pretending to chew a huge piece of gum in our mouths. Then, reaching our arms up we made sounds that were ‘silly’ or that expressed emotions such as anger, fear, sadness, relief. Next, we wrote silently about emotions that we tended to push away and not let ourselves feel, using the prompt, “ What would it look like if it were a monster, what color, shape, what would they want and need?”

I was overwhelmed by the connection with my daughter as we worked on our art. The project opened a space for us to talk about feelings without talking about them. Afterwards, sharing our work with each other was both inspiring and precious. A true gift of connection and healing.

A Window Between Worlds also offers some accessible art activities through their self-led “Window Of Time” Workshop Series which was created to support people of all ages and communities to face the impact of COVID-19. I invite you to take a window of time for yourself and perhaps with your children or colleagues. You may find yourself agreeing with Georgia O’Keeffe who said, “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.”