“Metaphor is the language of the Soul. Through a physical image, metaphor reveals a spiritual truth or condition. "
-Marion Woodman
By Chelsea Hanawalt
“Through the Rocky Terrain” was created from an unconscious dream work exercise inspired by the late Jungian Psychologist Marion Woodman. I created the following prompt based on Woodman’s incredible work for the Personality Theories class at The Drama Therapy Institute of LA.
“Journal about a recent dream or image that has stuck with you or meant something to you that you want to understand more about. After journaling, take some time to lie down and do some deep breathing and meditate on the dream or image. Feel into what is coming up for you by doing a body scan and placing a hand on any part of your body that is calling to you and start to move from that body part. After the embodied movement the next step is to create some sort of physical representation. This could be through a painting, a mask, a video, any medium that you are called to create from based on your dream or image exploration.”
Based on my exploration I created “Through the Rocky Terrain”.
In my drama therapy studies I have realized that I prefer to process my feelings and thoughts by putting together photos, music and short writings into a video. Like most people these days I have an amazing little camera on my phone that I like to document moments of my life on. I put the videos together using the app, Clips, on my phone. By stringing the chosen images together, adding the words and music to them it infuses more meaning to the questions, thoughts and feelings I am having. I can even look back at videos I made from other classes and see a theme or narrative coming through. Some of the videos I created can represent a “preferred outcome” while others like “Through the Rocky Terrain” represent the process I am currently in. Interacting in this creative and externalized way has helped me understand some of the unconscious thoughts and feelings I am working on. It is a very effective tool to use video in drama therapy to discover more about yourself and the people you work with.
Chelsea Hanawalt is an applied theatre practitioner and teaching artist in the NYC area. Chelsea is the creator of allow the sun where she offers embodied card readings, reiki, community events and retreats. Chelsea is an alternative track student at The Drama Therapy Institute of LA.
