One of the things I did as an art therapy student was to create my art therapy journal to keep track of my path to healing.

This was a huge part of my healing journey, and it helped me develop the SoulPages method with the seven elements.

The idea of inner parts is an old idea of many psychologists and theorists.

Freud divided the human psyche to Ego,Id, and Superego. The Id is all our inner parts that are driven by desires- eating, sex, etc

The superego parts tell us what we should do in the world. These parts are more critical and symbolize society’s and our parents’ demands.

Our inner critic usually “sits” in the superego area of the soul..

Our ego is built from a balance of the superego and the id parts.

The metaphor that Freud used is a bit militant- the Superego and the Id fight, and the Ego is trying to balance them.

 I prefer to look at the soul as a magical, mythological world full of all parts, energies, symbols, voices, colors, numbers, and entities.

Each of these parts can symbolize a part of our soul.

All these parts create a world, an ecosystem dependent on all its parts.

We have to try and understand as many possible of these different parts.

In the SoulPages method, the main aim is to activate positive parts of our ecosystem. parts that can contribute to well-being and self healing.

It is also important not to hide or neglect unfunctional parts such as sadness or neglect and self harm- but the idea is to connect to the positive energies and activate more positive energies as possible.

In order to do that I advise you to start your own practice of art therapy journal and work everyday on one positive image that you can add to your life.

Like many people around me, I also experienced traumatic events in my childhood and adolescence.

It took me years to realize that I’m not different or special; we all experience traumatic moments in our childhood, some more than others. but still, we all have our share of sad and difficult events that are part of us.

When I was 40 after I lost my pregnancy in week 17, I sank into 18 months of depression, and I started to feel obsessed with discovering how can I heal my inner wounds.

I understood that my depression was connected to these past traumatic experiences.

 I knew that I had to befriend all my inner “Demons”

I learned that the trauma is what happened to me and what brought me so far, and the fact that I overcame it shows the resilience and abilities that I possess.

I began my healing when I started to create mindful art pieces, small spreads in my visual journal that captured something of my childhood.

I decided to let the trauma that I experienced be the background of my paintings and writing.

For months I would write on the page and then cover it with my favorite colors and beautiful images.

In that way, I didn’t hide or ignore the trauma, I accepted it as an important part of my growth as a person.

Allowing myself these mindful art moments helped me connect with the healthy parts of my soul, these lighter, happy, joyous, strong, and resilient parts.

I can’t change the past, but I believe that each of us can extract the “gold” out of his/hers childhood experiences and pass it on to others.

This is why I decided to create the SoulCircle community- so we can all learn from each other and we could acknowledge each other’s wounds, not from a pitiful point of you, but instead from an admiring, respectful gaze that says- you are so brave!! 

An easy art practice that can change your life

“I’m not good enough”

“I could never do it, it’s too hard for me”

“I’m just not creative enough!”

These are sentences that we all say to ourselves on a daily basis.

But guess what…these sentences are not real! these are just rooted thoughts that your inner critic sends you as a regular routine.

We all heard that in order to change our life,we need to get rid of destructive beliefs that we have about ourselves.

we have to go through a painful process of dealing with our inner critic and letting go of these negative feelings.

But what if I told you there is a sweeter, joyful way to feel better, to be more secure, productive, and happier in our daily life?

I went through years of therapy, soul searching, and blaming my parents until I realized that I could activate positive inner parts that I never knew existed within me.

Jung talked about the archetypes as existing in the collective subconscious. Jung also said that each of us has the potential to know all the archetypes that exist in this realm.

When I developed the SoulPages method, I discovered a very important archetype inside me that was dormant – The dreaming child.

I learned how to activate it and it started to thrive and changed my life.

Our subconscious is a very powerful part of our brain, It holds lots of beliefs about ourselves that were created when we were very young. belief such as I can’t do it, It’s too difficult, I’m not good enough, etc..

The thing most people don’t realize is that our subconscious “speaks” in the language of symbols and images and we can use this language in order to re-program our minds and change these limiting beliefs.

one of the most powerful tools is creating mindful art inside a visual art diary or a visual journal.

Mindful art is any art practice that is based on mindfulness, meditation, or visualization to spark a creative practice. Our mind is more relaxed and open after we meditate and we can create more open and honest work of art.

When we work in a visual journal we can let our subconscious “choose” special images that we can dialogue with and discover important insights about ourselves.

One of the techniques that I teach in my courses is dialoguing with an image.

We start with picking a random image and we ask the image certain introductory questions:

Who are you?

Can you tell me about yourself?

why did you come today?

Do you have a message for me?

What part of me needs your help?

After you finish the dialogue you can create an environment for your image, an environment where it feels safe and protected.

You can start an art therapy journal even if you are not working with a certified therapist.

In the SoulPages method, I use mindful art techniques that are very therapeutic and can help us overcome some of our childhood wounds.

Art therapy is a modality of healing that was developed originally by artists that knew how much working with materials in a loose, nonjudgmental way- can be healing to your soul.

I started to develop the SoulPages method when I was in my last year of art therapy certificate. I was looking for a way to heal my inner wounds and my connection with my parents.

I started working on an altered book that I made from scratch, I only used the cover of the book and saw in new pages… I wrote on one side all my feelings and on the other side I allow myself to paint, glue, draw and basically just play with materials..

 It took a few months until I realize how strong this work was.

I started to feel compassion for my mother, I started to feel that I have more power and energy to do the daily activities.

I can truly say that this practice changed my life and helped me heal some deep inner wounds in a fun creative way and without the need to go to a certified therapist.

If you want to try one session for free you can check out this link

https://soul-pages.com/the-transformative-book-the-dreaming-child/

In one of the most difficult periods of my life, I found the visual journal and it helped me find my own inner guidance. It was after my mother died and I dealt with grief and shame.

In the beginning, I called my journal- an artistic Journal because it was all about expressing my feeling in an artistic way… I just enjoyed the visual effect of playing with different mixed media techniques.

But after a few months, I started to feel that what I create in my journal can be described as meditation art.

I would meditate on a subject, visualize it and then I would start work in my visual journal. I felt that the meditation continued even when I opened my eyes and started to create.

Every week I felt better, I felt that I can heal myself.

But… the most amazing healing started when I started to teach others.

I knew that I discovered something special and I decided to try and create lessons for others.

I developed SoulPages method I thought it for a few years. My student wanted more and more lessons and I started to feel that when I’m teaching others- I’m also healing myself.

Very soon I noticed that all my students also wanted to teach others..

This was the time when I developed the Mentor program- I understood that collective healing is so important!

I started to teach the Mentor course 8 years ago and since then I feel that when I create lessons that are coming from my inner soul, lessons that are created with my knowledge- I managed to help others and heal them-and the fact that I’m an agent of healing- help me maintain my mental health.

So if you want to heal yourself through healing others you should consider the SoulPages Mentor program. You can read more here:

https://soul-pages.com/courses/soulpages-facilitator-training-26-27/