Art & Stories: Medicinal Tools for Transformational Healing & Creative Living

CREATE A STORY is a healing arts studio that honors the language of the soul and imagination by offering practices that enhance one’s ability to envision. The ancient practice of art making is a means of inviting a conversation with the unseen worlds. As this creative energy is unveiled, a path to knowing the self becomes visible. Each human being is born to live a unique story, but too often, the harsh experiences of early life weave a web of forgetfulness.

In exploring our narratives, images, and symbols, as well as uncovering all the discourses that have contributed to their making, an empowering space is created to reflect, to heal, and, when necessary, to become re-storied. Discovering these more redemptive and preferred narratives through this lost art of story making can be extremely helpful and life renewing. It is a pathway to a deeper sense of authenticity, allowing each to recover a life with meaning. It is a way of remembering.

Claudia Raphael is a transpersonal educator (MA), licensed and board-certified art therapist (LPAT, ATR-BC), and licensed massage therapist (LMT). She currently has a private practice in Santa Fe, NM, and is an adjunct faculty member at Southwestern College. Ms. Raphael has also earned certifications in marriage and family therapy (MFT), polarity therapy (RPP), infant massage instruction (CIMI), infant mental health (IMHA), and expressive art therapy (REAT). At the present time, Ms. Raphael is a Ph.D. Candidate in Jungian Archetypal Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute.

At the STUDIO, the techniques of art making, journeywork, energy awareness, and story have become some of the essential rituals in Ms. Raphael’s daily spiritual practice. As an educator and therapist, she deeply enjoys serving others, assisting their process of growth and integration using these imaginal tools. Ms. Raphael believes such ancient practices can offer tremendous assistance when one enters the unknown landscapes of transformation and growth. Discovering the wise guide within can be essential in lighting the way as we find ourselves in states of transition and change or become challenged at any of the important developmental stages of life. Personally interfacing with trauma and loss, Claudia has entered these imaginal landscapes, and these experiences have informed her belief that many invaluable gifts are earned by courageously entering the shadow. These mythic doorways assist in the uncovering and recovering of the authentic self. Yet courage is most certainly required when dealing with seemingly unknown forces that invite deep psychic dialogue and transformation. Assistance and support during these times are often imperative to ensure successful outcomes, blessing all involved. In this dance of the light and the darkness, all are set free to live more liberating lives.