Kim McAndrews, HeartTending® Founder
Through her previous experience as a licensed foster parent for traumatized teens, and her ongoing studies in psychology, art and spirituality, Kim discovered the combination of art-making, ritual, and storytelling to be a tincture for reconnection and self-healing. She calls this three-fold process, HeartTending.
It was through my earliest experiences as a foster parent—making art with my teenage daughters as a way to bond—I first discovered that connection, as well as emotional and psychological self-healing, can be facilitated and nurtured by the process of creativity. At the time I did not know formal art therapy existed. Nor did I intentionally employ art as a means for calming distress. I simply did what I naturally did … I “made stuff,” and I invited the girls to “make stuff” with me. Together we learned that, with much patience and mutual encouragement, our creative sessions were a beautiful way to build confidence, connection and a new form of constructive language through play. Art-making also became a “voice” for safely expressing emotions and memories related to stress, loss and trauma.
My views on the capacity for self-healing through creativity began taking shape as I watched my foster daughters in the process of creating art. Regardless of the nature or intensity of emotions that were being expressed in the images they created, and the ways in which they used the art materials (e.g. drawing slowly with soft pressure or scribbling feverishly with heavy pressure), when they were finished, they were generally more relaxed and displayed a sense of peace and relief. This appeared to be true whether they were engaged in a lighthearted craft project for fun, or a more serious process of drawing or painting emotional distress. In the case of the latter, rarely did either girl ever “understand” the meaning behind what she painted or drew. Yet, the peace that followed could not be disputed. Each girl appeared to “process” her own inner distress without ever extracting a significant intellectual understanding of the meaning of the art she had created. In our house, art-making became a way to self-heal via process rather than analysis.
Years later, my love for psychology, spirituality and self-healing took new flight when I began combining my personal art-making sessions with circle ritual and discovered new lines of communication with my own subconscious. This process also made me feel more connected to the “soul of the world,” and began teaching me—through poetry and powerful imagery—how to extend my healing beyond the personal and forge more harmonious earth paths. New contradictions started arising through my art—shadow and light, pain and peace, fear and courage—and I began experiencing deeper feelings of compassion, empathy, connection and equality than I had ever experienced before.
By bringing my shame, my fears, and anything that feels like a “valley” into the light of my own consciousness—by turning my shadow into art and giving it visual voice—I am learning how to better hear the calling of my own soul, and act upon it lovingly and responsibly.
Kim McAndrews earned her BA in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Psychology from Antioch University–Seattle. She is in the process of earning her masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Art Therapy.