My Monster Has A Name

Trigger Scale: (1/5)

In the post “Session Splash – May 26, 2009 Part 1*” I mention two letters that I wanted to write to a former client. I wrote the first of these two in the post “Angry Fuck’in Therapeutic Letter to Former Client Part 1**”. Please read those posts for background if you would like.

Anger Management by ~protogeny on deviantART

Since writing the angry letter in Part 1 I have almost completely forgotten about this client. I have not yet replaced the work I lost, but I am 75% of the way there, which helps me to let go. I also do not feel angry at him anymore, and have let go of all the negative emotions associated with the situation. For these reasons I did not feel it was necessary to write a second letter at all. And no surprise, but he never contacted me to come back to work at the end of last month.

The reason I say I have almost completely forgotten about him is because while I have let go of the negative feelings, I do not want to forget the lessons that I learned from this experience. I feel I learned, or starting working on ways:

• To trust my gut instinct when someone feels “off” to me
• To respect myself enough to set and honor my own boundaries
• To find ways to express my anger in an effort to let it go
• To healthfully express my anger to those I am angry with directly, but with respect
• I can not change, or help change, those who do not want to change themselves

I have used this experience to further my confrontation skills, such as with my roommates. It is still a nerve racking process for me, with many panic attacks along the journey, but I am getting there and not giving up.

1. Angry Fuck’in Therapeutic Letter to Former Client Part 1**
2. Session Splash – May 26, 2009 Part 1*
3. 10 Things I Like About Me – Project Positivity
4. My Monster Is Alive*
5. Session Splash – May 12, 2009*****

Trigger Scale: (0/5)

My Monster now has an art Gallery page to showcase my personal art therapy artwork, and anyone else’s who wants to submit there. It will help to document my therapy process further, supplementing my Session Splashes, since I often engage in art therapy. My therapist is an art therapist and she has many supplies in her office for that use.

Next week I will be gathering the rest of my art therapy pieces from her to upload and photographing the work I have done at home over the last month into the various galleries. I will post about each piece individually or in groups so that there is some explanation and background about them.

I would like the gallery to help build community on the blog, and welcome all appropriate submissions from readers. If you have artwork that you would like to share, please contact me. Same goes with the Art Therapy page.

The Art Therapy page represents a collection of all the art therapy ideas and projects that have been suggested to me in therapy or that I have come across while doing self healing work.

Feel free to check out the new pages often, as I will be adding to them regularly. I hope that you enjoy the new additions to My Monster!

Picture from CutItOut.

1. My Monster Is Alive*
2. The Anxiety Process
3. Therapy Script for Communication*
4. Safety First Checklist Part 2*