I met Eden before she started her journey into mental health therapy and phenomenological psychology. It came as no surprise that she wanted to enter these fields given that she was already an altruistic human and friend. She is a genuinely warm, compassionate person and when she asked me to create art for the services page on her Holistic Therapy website I took it as an opportunity to learn more and do my best to design images that were as inviting as her heart.
I had to go deep for these images in order to appropriately represent the physiology of self care. I have personally benefited from Somatic Therapy; making new relationships with the trauma that has been locked in my body and allowing myself to heal and reconnect in a holistic way versus ingesting a pharmaceutical band aid.
The image for Individual Psychotherapy was inspired by my own experience with self-reflection and giving myself permission to receive unconditional love while simultaneously protecting myself from toxic relationships [it’s an ongoing process].
For all three images, Eden provided wonderfully detailed direction for what colors and textures to use, highlighting the inclusion of a myriad of cultures and diasporas. For the Parenting and Support Therapy image we talked about ways to convey a communal “it takes a village” vibe so the background textures connect each of the figures as does the placement of their bodies facing inward towards each other.
Multicultural Ancestors were portrayed in the Immigrant & Refugee Diaspora Therapy image. Eden wanted to convey a sense of being protected by those who laid a path for us as well as the next generation. It was a nice exercise to reflect on my own family and extended family, some whom I’ve only seen in photos, and acknowledge their journeys and how they impact my own.
Eden’s commission payment went to Refugee Women's Alliance (ReWA) as I was directing the money for my commissions to non-profit organizations focused on elevating communities who need financial support and visibility the most.
