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FROM THE EDITOR ...ART IS HEALING
Whether it’s poetry, clay, art journaling, dance, fine art, or other creative endeavor, art can be healing. As you’ll read in this issue of Voices Heard, art is often the choice for healing our sexual abuse.
Expressing our stories through visual journeys and movement is a way to get out of our heads to express our thoughts, and feelings, when words often fail us.
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Our featured artist on the cover is Joanne Kirves , Clay Artist, and survivor who “found her voice in clay.” The beauty and expression of her work and poetry tells her story and, in the process, she finds healing. Read Fire Circle, Enough, and Rise Up to see how clay and poetry has helped Joanne heal beginning on pg. 14.
Even as a child, Donna Bulatowicz expressed her story through visual arts; helping her to grow and transform through her story at an early age and become the advocate and speaker that she has become. Donna’s article, No One Will Ever Silence Me Again begins on pg. 8.
Teri Wellbrock’s article Adverse Childhood Experiences on pg. 18 shares how she became the poster child of ACES counting more than 10 Adverse Childhood Experiences, beginning at the age of 5. Learn how ACES affected her and affects all of us.
Our regular contributor, Karo Ska expresses herself through poetry in an ode to my feathered friends on pg. 21, from her book, loving my salt-drenched bones.
Julie Hart surprises us with a video expressing her healing dance form, Nia on pg. 22 in her article, My Life is my Art. My Art is my Dance
In our Building Resilience section, I include a short article Self-Discovery through Art Journaling that introduces you to a process I use for self discovery and self-care, pg 25. Denise Bossarte shows us how to heal through SoulCollage,® a way to access our intuition and more on pg. 26. Rachel Grant says it beautifully “to be healed” has everything to do with minimizing our propensity to being triggered and being adept at moving out of that state when it does occur.” in The Art of Not Paying Attention, pg 29.
As always, the Resources section offers a selection of books fand online resources Our theme for the April issue is Sexual Abuse Affects Everyone Around Us. Share your wisdom or your stories with me at Claire@ ClaireOLeary.com.
