I have been creating mixed media collages for some time before I was introduced to SoulCollage®. There was something so deeply healing in creating collages, multiple images that deeply resonated with my soul coming together to form a whole.  A trusting intuitive process.

 

For me, the art process is a practice of self-compassion, faith,  mindfulness, and healing. It is a time to pause and just be.  I began to realize how the intuitive process that guided my collage-making suddenly transferred to other aspects of my life.  It was enlightening and empowering.

 

The first time I heard about SoulCollage®, I was in an expressive arts workshop facilitated by Lucy Barbera who had a yearlong certificate in the creative arts for mental health practitioners. Artist and therapist Veronica Schauder mentioned SoulCollage®.  

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SoulCollage® was developed by Seena B. Frost, M.A., M.Div, a creative, intuitive collage process where each card represents an aspect of the self. Through prompts such as “I am the one who….”, I began the process of dialoguing with each card. 

 

In SoulCollage® each card represents different aspects of the self, but also others, the community, family friends, nature, spirit animals and guides, archetypes, source and the transpersonal. A Soul Collage card is created on a 5X7 cardboard and enclosed in a plastic sleeve giving it a finished look as if it has been painted with clear acrylic.

 

On the back of the card on a 5X7 sheet of paper, I answer questions. such as: 

 

 "I am the one who...."

"My name is...." 

"My gift to you is..."

"My light is...."

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Once these questions or more are answered, the gift of the card remains there to remind me of what I need to learn or to know or to remember. Each image speaks to me from a deep place within my soul. I can draw one of my SoulCollage® cards to gain knowledge of what is need right now.

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I took my first workshop in Princeton, and then in Woodstock and in Long Island, and finally in July 2020, I completed my facilitator training. SoulCollage® reminds me so much of Internal Family Systems (IFS), which is a non-pathologizing type of therapy that allows a client to explore their many parts in a gentle and compassionate way. In IFS therapy we remind the client that “All parts are welcome!”.  In SoulCollage®. we befriend these parts with images and ritual.

 

IFS also reminds us that no matter what we have been through, we all possess Self, known by many names, Buddha Nature, Basic Goodness, our Wise Self.  Richard Swartz, the founder of IFS notes that when we lead from "Self" Energy, we can get a distance from all of the different messages our parts carry.  The Self utilizes what in IFS is referred to as the 8’C’s   — Compassion, Curiosity, Calmness, Clarity, Courage, Connectedness, Confidence, Creativity. the Self is our soul essence. 

 

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In my introductory workshop, I will share what I have learned about creating SoulCollage®. cards and know you will be able to create your own.  We will find images to represent parts of us and dialogue with them.  Here “All parts are welcome!” just like all dreams are welcome.  If interested just send me an email with the subject "SoulCollage"  and I will add you to the interested list. To learn more about me go to linktree