The Healing Power of Play: "The Owl" by bink

As a change from writing about furniture and housewares, I might be writing about trauma/healing for a while here, off and on.
That's not unrelated to furnishing my new apartment. I don't think it's an accident that I'm willing and wanting to ponder the traumatic events of the past couple years (and longer--and ongoing) now that I have a place of my own.

I wanted to say, though, because some people might not want to go there, and that's okay (Mr. Rogers said!).
This morning Marz set some limits on what traumatic events she is able/willing to talk about with me.
I was impressed. I was not taught well on this point--always thought I had to listen to everyone. Too much!

As I blogged yesterday, I signed up to see a therapist.
Since it'll probably take a while to actually see one, I started  looking online into the role of play & toys in healing trauma, because that's one of the things the Orphan Reds do for me.
(Not that that's their job.
No! They are just little girls playing amongst themselves.)

Most of the stuff I've found about healing play and toys is about working with traumatized kids. I'd like to see more about adults.

Adult bink drew an amazing series of cartoons four summers ago (2018). In this "Childhood Heroes" series, she retells key traumatic events of her childhood, introducing magic helpers into each one.
The helpers change the stories' endings--rescuing or helping baby bink in each case. 

bink says that the hard work of re-imagining each event has had lasting effects--after drawing the cartoons and their new endings, these stories that plagued her faded away.

NOTE: This episode is about finding a helper. It doesn't show any traumatic event.

This is not the first in her series, but for me it kicks off the whole undertaking--being willing to enter the dark cave, and asking a helper to go with you.

The Owl, by L. Naylor (aka bink)

lucindanaylor.com

 

 

The End
The Owl, by L. Naylor