A Year of Making Just for Me

I passed. 🎉

After 400 hours of study, assessments, practicals, theory work, and many more hours of personal reflection than I can count, I have completed my Holistic Integrated Creative Arts Therapy qualification.

It has been the most beautiful, transformative year.

I want to share some of the work I made throughout the course, not all of it, because a lot of it was never meant to be shared, but a few pieces that I hope will show you a small glimpse into the world I have been immersing myself in.

I needed this year to be mine. I needed to make art without the weight of an audience, without thinking about how it would look on my feed or whether it was the right kind of thing to post. So much of what I created, the movement pieces, the music, the drama work, existed purely as experience and to provide evidence for my course.

It was deeply personal and raw at times, hence why a lot of what I created is for my portfolio only.

One of the earliest things I made was a tree.

The roots were the things I value in myself, my passion, my calm and consideration, the way music moves through me, and the pride I take in doing things well. The canopy at the top held the things I was growing toward.

The leaves falling were the things I was letting go of.

Perfectionism. The need to control. The pace I had felt under.

I didn’t know it just yet, but when I painted it, I was going to spend the next year releasing those feelings.

Later in the course came the looser pieces. At this point, you could really start to see where I was letting myself become free on the course.

This artwork wasn’t about making something to frame or sell. It was about letting paint be an expression of how I was feeling in that moment.

There is something quietly radical about making art with no outcome in mind. I knew this before I started the course. But experiencing it, and really giving into it, was magical.

I also want to mention something that shaped this year in a way I didn’t fully anticipate was by joining a community that I hadn’t stepped into before.

If you’ve noticed fewer videos from me, this is why. The time I would have spent filming, I chose to spend with people. Face to face. In workshops, in community spaces, watching first-hand what happens when someone who hasn’t picked up a paintbrush in decades sits down, lets their hands move, and starts to tell their story.

I got to be part of a Heritage Lottery-funded project this year, exploring local histories through art.

I sat with people and listened. I watched creativity do what I have always believed it could do. It was so beautiful to watch people enjoy making art, sharing stories and enjoying the space. I had been craving that human in-person connection.

The thing I’m most grateful for, when I look back at this year, is the permission it gave me.

Permission to stand more fully in what actually feels like me, rather than performing a version of myself I thought the internet wanted (cue trying to hide my Black Country accent!).

This qualification opened something up. It really helped me to see how art can help people. Not just inspire them from a distance, but actually, genuinely help them. And that is the direction I’m walking toward.

If you’d like to watch this in video format, you can find my video here:

If you’d like to find out more, please do let drop me a message. As always, thank you for your continued support - it’s always appreciated 🥰
-Hannah x