About a Weeping Willow, a Phoenix Rising From Its Ashes, and Building a House … Art Therapy With Refugees: Three Different Perspectives

This retrospective of an art therapy experience comes from Fanya, a 42year-old refugee from Armenia. It briefly illustrates how psychological trauma is foremost a destruction of meaning and a fragmentation of one’s sense of identity. On a small scale Fanya’s story demonstrates how through art therapy she became able to reconnect her past with the present, and how art-making contributed to a restoration of her sense of identity.