The SoulCollage® process starts with making 8"x5" collages, from an array of found images or your own art or photos, in an intuitive manner that invites the riches of the unconscious mind to take visible form. As in art therapy, artistic skill or training of the client is not the point. The process seems to invite the brain to express, in images, aspects of your current situation or world view. The next step is to ask a question about something that's on your mind or heart and draw a few cards at random, sight unseen (it's fine to include cards made by others). You then feel your way into how each collaged image would introduce itself if it were a person, speak for it ("I Am One Who..."), and let it give its viewpoint on your question. Here's an example of how this works.

 A recently retired woman brought to a workshop a group photo of herself and several colleagues at her last job, standing outside their workplace. She had felt good about being of real service there, but the work (and the relationship with her boss) had been emotionally difficult.

"That building was part of it," she said, "toxic, depressing." Carefully she cut the group out of the photo, set it aside, and glued the building onto a SoulCollage® card. "There! They feel better already." She filled in the outlines of the work team with black. On the finished card, just their heads peek out from behind abundant flowers, a butterfly, blue glass bottles that remind her of healing liquids, and a big hawk's head in profile.

Her SoulCollage® reading asked for guidance in relating to family members. This card said,

"I Am One Who rises above death, pushes ghosts to the background, and is able to lift you beyond patterns that harm you. Take as your inspiration colored glass, which reflects light."

Clearly this is not the collager's conscious self that is speaking; it tells her it can do what she can't.

"As to your question, looking into your own life will empower you to meet needs of theirs that you can help with and be strong enough to straightforwardly tell them when you can't."

Her voice sounded stronger, I remarked. "Well, it's the eagle talking!" she said. On follow-up, she says the SoulCollage® process has kept her centered, calm, and strong enough to avoid being drawn into family conflicts-"I cannot say enough good things about it."

This example shows the art + therapy benefits of the healing use of symbols and of
manipulating materials to express thoughts, feelings, and perceptions one is aware of, as well as less-conscious aspects of the psyche. Following the promptings of her intuition, the collager literally separated herself from the depression lingering from her former job, invoked good cheer (yellow) and new growth (flowers) in a bleak situation, and tapped in to capacities for strength and vision (eagle) and transcendence (butterfly) she had not known she had. The eagle's great size in relation to the human figures, and the flowers covering them, seem to show the relative importance placed by her larger self on these qualities (these were not conscious choices by the collager). There's another hint here for future growth work: the relational patterns in play at her workplace may have reflected those in her own family.

Katherine L. Ziegler, PhD (CA Lic#PSY11596), a psychologist since 1980, conducts a psychotherapy and coaching practice in Oakland, CA. She has made art and used art with clients for decades. Since training as a SoulCollage® Facilitator in 2009, she has used SoulCollage® with psychotherapy clients, in personal-growth workshops with individuals, and in team building with work teams. For two years, as a feature editor of the online newsletter for the 1500+-member, worldwide SoulCollage® Facilitators Circle, she has helped practitioners tell their stories of SoulCollage®-assisted transformation. Contact Katherine kz@selfawarelife.com.

The One and The Many (4)

created by 

Jyotimitra, Nadamitra, Nirahankara, Gretchen Thomas 

and Emily Caldwell.