With the help of volunteer artists, two Western University professors turned a research project on cognitive behavioural therapy for women who had experienced trauma into visual art in an effort to give meaning to what usually becomes numbers in a study.
Through the London Health Sciences Centre, the two professors conducted an intervention study looking at the effectiveness of PATH, a pilot project consisting of trauma and violence informed cognitive behavioural therapy for pregnant women who have experienced violence or abuse.
“When you’re having a baby, there’s a lot of people touching your body and you don’t have a lot of control over it in that situation and if you’ve been through a violent relationship or you’ve experienced abuse that can be challenging and really triggering,” said health studies professor Tara Mantler, who co-investigated the project with nursing professor Kimberly Jackson.
“This intervention gave the women their voices back and it got all the [health care] providers in the room to think about the way they treat women and by that, provide them with more autonomy, so they could better cope with the experience,” Mantler added.
Jackson says the results of the pilot project were positive, but the funding for the program was eventually cut. And while they were able to share their work with researchers, they felt they needed to reach an audience beyond academia.
The two professors teamed up with Sheila O’Keefe-McCarthy, a creative researcher at Brock University, who helped them transpose the women’s experiences through the program into works of art.
“The numbers tell an interesting story if you’re an academic, but we found that a lot of the meaning from the journey to recovery for these women was being lost. That’s why we wanted it to be visual,” said Mantler.
Through reading the transcripts of each woman’s experience, O’Keefe-McCarthy created four artistic themes that were developed into poems, which laid the groundwork for visual artists to make ten art pieces.
“It was important for us to have an embodied experience to have a glimpse into what the journey through the program was like for women,” Mantler said.
The art illustrates the women’s transformation from trauma to healing as they went through their pregnancies with new coping mechanisms.
Back in October, the research and artwork was showcased for the general public and the result was very gratifying, according to Jackson.
“We were overwhelmed with how moved people have been when they’ve seen the art, so for us it’s been amazing to bring the voices of these women to light in a very meaningful and powerful way,” she said.
Those interested in seeing the work will still get a chance to do so during the Legacy 2020 research conference at Western University in May, but after that, the art will be auctioned off with all proceeds going to a women’s shelter.
