I work with adult survivors of sexual assault and use various forms of art to help them process their trauma and tell their stories. Several of my clients said they wanted to do a project for the 5th anniversary of the #metoo hashtag. I decided to do an art exhibit where they could share their stories through visual art – painting, drawing or collage.

I scheduled a specific workshop for those who wanted to be part of the exhibit and emphasized the experience was a personal one and was about expressing their individual stories in whatever manner they wished. I also reminded them it was not about attempting to create the “perfect” piece of art, it didn’t matter whether they had ever created art in the past, or their skill level. This helped them to relax and in the workshop critique all of them said they appreciated the fact they weren’t expected to be professional artists, they just needed to be authentic and create what they felt best represented their personal experience and journey.

I also asked them to name their art piece and write a description that included the symbolism of colors/shapes/words. One used an old piece of wood she had in her garage and painted one part in black, the middle in teal and left the other part white. She painted different words including “Ashamed,” “Judged,” “Broken” in red on the black background, “Someone Believed Me,” “Listened to Me,” “Told Me It Wasn’t My Fault” and other things in the teal part, and “Strong,” “Brave,” “Survivor” in the white part. Her title and description was “Timeline of emotions and events in my journey from victim to survivor.”

Another survivor said “I never knew how empowering it could be to use art to share my story.”

Several of them who attended the exhibit initially didn’t want other people to know they were one of the artists, but by the time the exhibit was over they were standing next to their piece telling others about their journey and how using art to share their stories has helped them.

Overall, their art and the event received a lot of praise, and it is one of the best, most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had as an advocate and facilitator.