I facilitated these heart-centered art workshops with a 2nd grade group at my elementary school. The group consisted of three students with various attachment wounds including loss of a grandparent, parental incarceration, and revoked parenting rights due to child abuse.
The photo below depicts the “Heart Stories” workshop, which gave participants freedom to create visual representations of their emotional world.
This project laid the groundwork for the Invisible String project the following week. Participants listened to the story The Invisible String which is a metaphor for the invisible connections we hold to the people we love and from whom we are separated. The participants were given the opportunity to connect themselves to family members they miss. The two participants present both selected their mothers, from whom they are currently separated.
Throughout the week, I would use the invisible strings as a reminder to the participants that even in the midst of their grief and longing, their invisible string is always keeping them connected to their loved ones.
