PTSD Diagnosis and Recovery: A Personal and Spiritual Perspective Part 5

This is part 5 of a 5 part series. The page to the series can be found here: PTSD series.

Topics covered in this video include forgiveness, breaking contracts/agreements; discovering meaning and destiny; thriving with a new narrative; family healing; supporting others with PTSD; and prophetic declarations and encouragement.

Below are some songs and videos that will encourage you and inspire you in your healing journey with Jesus.

Almost Me Again, a song written by Tery Wayne and Corey Lee Barker, and video by Carey Latham. It’s OK to take your time in the recovery process, be yourself, and be honest about how you’re feeling. You will get through this! This song will encourage you. It’s hot off the presses, and this is a demo, not published yet: Almost Me Again.

Art directive: Make a family tree of legacy.

What kind of legacy do you want to pass down to your children, your grandchildren, and the future generations? What do you want to see happen within your marriage and family and extended family? What does God say about your family? This task involves making declarations over your family through art of what you want the family legacy to be according to Gods will and design (you can use the Bible as a reference).

Therapeutic value: This is a very structured activity which should help you feel more in control and encouraged, thereby lowering your anxiety and improving your mood by creating hope. The making of the tree allows for some emotions to flow, but the writing and gluing of the paper products is more cognitive and provides a good balance to your emotions. By creating the art you are becoming closer to seeing the manifestation of what you desire for your family and increasing your faith level to receive. You are connecting your mind, body, soul, and emotions by creating the art which helps you not only feel more connected to yourself, which is an important part of healing, but it will help you feel more connected to these goals so that they can become reality. Each word and representation in the art is a visual decree which has the power to change the spiritual atmosphere around you.

Supplies: Paper (watercolor or mixed media recommended. We used 9×12 inches, but any size will work as long as you can fit everything you want); drawing materials or watercolor paints; writing utensils such as gel pens or permanent markers; ephemera such as printed words and images, magazine words or images, or store-bought words or images; stickers and embellishments (not necessary but could be fun and make it quicker); and also optional is other kinds of scrapbooking papers to write on or tissue paper you could use to make leaves or embellish your tree.

Directions:

1st step: Make a tree. You can draw one or print one out to collage and glue down. Think of what kind of tree would best represent your family. It could even be made up. We drew on 9×12 watercolor paper, then painted it with watercolors and/or oil pastels. A quick pointer about drawing trees is that they start wide at the base and then get thinner as you go up. Each limb is a bit thinner than the trunk it’s coming out of and then gets thinner as it extends outwards. Then, each limb on that is a bit thinner, then the branch gets thinner as it stems out, and so on. Each branch can have limbs with more branches. You can look at a tree for reference. However, you have the option of making a simple tree with a trunk and round circle for the crown or any other variation. Don’t let it stress you put! This is supposed to be fun, and it’s more about the process of using art to bring yourself and your family healing by making a declarative proclamation. We used small sponges pressed into wet watercolor pans to then pat on our trees wherever there would be leaves. This is a super easy and quick way to make leaves. You can also just dab a watercolor brush. Please know you can make your tree however you want and use whatever art supplies you have on hand.

Step 2: This is optional, but I recommend that you paint or color a sky and a ground line such as the grass. This is easier to do before you start gluing a bunch of things on your tree or elsewhere. We used watercolor paint, which you can spread out right on your paper by adding more water to get it lighter. The more water you add, the lighter it will be, and the less water the darker. You can leave blank areas for clouds or go back over it with a white oil pastel for clouds.

Step 3: Cut out words from magazines; found online or written up in word documents and printed out; or ones you have personally hand written on separate sheets of paper (such as painted watercolor paper or solid colored scrapbooking paper) and then arrange and glue these down onto your tree. I hand wrote my words on craft paper found at the dollar tree, rubbed the edges on a stamp to make them stand out, then glued those down on another sheet of paper to make a border, before gluing it to my tree. You can also glue or stick any stickers or embellishments you may have. In America, we can find quite a bit of stickers, ephemera, and embellishments at the Dollar Tree, Walmart, or at any art supply or craft store. You can also find lots online to purchase. Embellishments could include yarn, buttons, ribbons, glitter, fabric glue, beads, found objects, etc.

Now, make your tree the way you like to represent you and your family. Everyone approached the task differently. One person listed the gifts of the spirit. One person didn’t have much of a family, but we suggested using her friends and/or church family as her family. You can look at the examples below for some inspiration!

Be blessed!

Pictures: These are pictures from our workshop today. Today, we had a small gathering because some people were out of town and one person moved. We still had a great time! I love watching everyone blossom and be touched by God. You can see how God is expanding each person. Evidence of the expansion shows up in the art!