SOULCOLLAGE®

Creating art has always been a part of my world: from drawing pictures in elementary school for book reports to doing photography as an adult. I was never skilled at a level to make a profession out of it, but I found deep enjoyment in tapping into my creativity and making beautiful things.

Fortunately, I discovered SoulCollage® during my healing journey. “Originated by Seena Frost, SoulCollage® is a process for accessing your intuition and creating an incredible deck of cards with deep personal meaning that will help you with life’s questions and transitions.” books and the adventures they could take me on, pets and the unconditional love they offered, and playing music in the bands at school. It was a revelation to see that my past included a much broader range of experience and emotions than just the

SoulCollage® works with images from a variety of resources—magazines, books, photographs, drawings, and more. My photographer side went nuts when I found another practice that uses images!

SoulCollage® is a real wonder because it allows you to bypass the analytic, critical part of your brain to tap into the intuitive, creative part of your brain. Cutting and gluing the images down together to make a card is playful and fun. The journaling work with the collage you have created is revealing and taps into deeper, bigger wisdom than you realized you had access to. Working with the images by-passes the often critical, judgmental conscious parts of our personality and allows us to connect with the inner sources of inspiration and wisdom often inaccessible to us.

Denise Bossarte, Inner Artist Card

I first heard about SoulCollage® from an artist friend, and we took a workshop together. The first card I made was an “Inner Artist” card to honor my creative self. She sits on my art table to inspire me and has even gained some paint over time!

Denise Bossarte, Happy Child Card

The facilitator also asked us to make a happy child card. I was very reluctant to make a card for a happy child, as my childhood abuse had tainted all my memories of childhood to just focus on the negative things that had happened during that time. But being a self-professed “good student” I took up the challenge.

As I made the card, I started to remember things that gave me joy in my childhood: abuse. In re-imaging some aspects of my childhood, there was a shift to give that little girl more depth, breadth and appreciation.

Her world became bigger and so did mine.

I’ve also made cards about the people and heros in my life, and for archetypal energies in play in my life’s story: such as a card to help me process the grief of a friend’s death, which included coming to terms with my anger for him not seeking medical attention until it was too late.

Denise Bossarte, Abused Child Card

The abused child was one of the hardest cards I’ve ever made, but I wanted to acknowledge and honor that part of myself and have a representation of her to help focus my compassion and forgiveness for her as part of my healing journey.

I have learned a lot and healed a lot working with my cards. And enjoy the process so much I became a trained facilitator so I can share this wonderful gift with others.

Online and in-person classes/workshops are given by trained facilitators around the world, so you can find a SoulCollage® class that fits with your schedule.

About The Author

Denise spent her adulthood healing herself from the traumatic impact the sexual abuse had on her life. She is not a mental health professional. She is a Thriver who has traveled a healing journey and shares personal, guided experiences for readers to find and engage in their own journey to healing, and becoming Thrivers. Thriving After Sexual Abuse is a winner of 16 book awards and was recognized by Kirkus Reviews feature in the “30 Great Indie Books Worth Discovering” March 2022 edition.

Denise Bossarte is an award-winning poet, writer, photographer, and artist. A certified meditation facilitator, she is also a contemplative arts teacher. As an IT professional, she works for a large urban school district. Denise holds a BA in chemistry, an MS in computer science, and a PhD in developmental neuroscience. She is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse.

Whether writing about overcoming trauma in her nonfiction work or recasting her reallife experiences into award-winning dark urban fantasy in four novels— Glamorous, Beginnings, Return, and Readings—Denise tackles the dark side of things with courage, fearlessness, and compassion.

Denise has also published other articles in Voices Heard: Yoga: A Self-Healing Practice for Survivors in the Summer 2021 issue; Meditation: A Self-Healing Practice for Survivors in the Fall 2021 issue.

Also see us on the Building Resilience Live Podcast.