I am delighted to have been asked to review this exquisite memoir of a personal journey of recovery from traumatic brain injury through expressive arts therapy. Millet-Gallant is a worthy follow-up to her heroine, Frida Kahlo, with her deep dive into the imaginal realm through which she creates a new relationship with her rapidly shifting experience of life following her injury. It has been truly inspiring to track her courageous and unflinching march into the painful territories of loss, fear, and guilt, uninterrupted by self-pity or doubt and brimming with sensitive self-awareness.
I was very partial to her writing style, which seemed committed to simplicity without unnecessary detours or excessively dense descriptions, while still providing a stimulating array of colorful and creative insights that powerfully conveyed immense and complex feelings and experiences. It was a pleasurable read with a smooth and flowing pace, which is important for someone like me who doesn't often make time for reading. Her straight-forward intent to share and educate was neatly matched with her succinct accounts of selected, crystalized nuggets of her lengthy recovery.
As a professional expressive arts therapist, I greatly appreciated the value of this work for individuals recovering from significant injuries as well as for professionals working with the TBI population. Counselors and psychotherapists will find inspiration for creative interventions with their clients. Expressive arts therapists will enjoy this affirmation of how our work can access the subtle, vital layers of the psyche where adaptation and resilience take root. Most importantly perhaps, this work provides a rich introduction to the application of creativity in all of our lives, both in her literature review of the history of art therapy as well as her embrace of the therapeutic value of making art, not as a form of rehabilitation for a disability, but as a recognized function of the creative process by practicing artists.
I highly recommend this lovely model for how we can each celebrate our unique identities through the refined and mature self-understanding available to us through the expressive arts.
I was very partial to her writing style, which seemed committed to simplicity without unnecessary detours or excessively dense descriptions, while still providing a stimulating array of colorful and creative insights that powerfully conveyed immense and complex feelings and experiences. It was a pleasurable read with a smooth and flowing pace, which is important for someone like me who doesn't often make time for reading. Her straight-forward intent to share and educate was neatly matched with her succinct accounts of selected, crystalized nuggets of her lengthy recovery.
As a professional expressive arts therapist, I greatly appreciated the value of this work for individuals recovering from significant injuries as well as for professionals working with the TBI population. Counselors and psychotherapists will find inspiration for creative interventions with their clients. Expressive arts therapists will enjoy this affirmation of how our work can access the subtle, vital layers of the psyche where adaptation and resilience take root. Most importantly perhaps, this work provides a rich introduction to the application of creativity in all of our lives, both in her literature review of the history of art therapy as well as her embrace of the therapeutic value of making art, not as a form of rehabilitation for a disability, but as a recognized function of the creative process by practicing artists.
I highly recommend this lovely model for how we can each celebrate our unique identities through the refined and mature self-understanding available to us through the expressive arts.
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