I was sent to boarding school at 5, as some of my poems deftly speak about …. the abandonment, the cruelty of that act and the life-long behaviours picked up from those early years of survival.
It was only in 2011 at a Quaker Arts weekend when I drew a black box for Boarding School that someone whispered into my ear “You know, Carole, there is an organization that does workshops”. I signed up for the BS Survivor workshops Nick Duffell had started some 30 years earlier and my life changed for ever. I was 63!
I also met someone who told me about Anna Halprin’s Tamalpa Institute in Movement Based Expressive Arts in California! As I was considering studying Art Therapy at the time, wanting to weave my love of art with healing, this was perfect. Tamalpa UK was birthed and in that year long study over 12 weekends in Folkestone in 2011/12, again I found myself with women who accepted me, non-judgmentally and totally. And I still love the body based expression of art, which to me is the very soul. All of this aiding me in finding my voice.
Since 2011 I’ve done a lot of work to heal. Nick talks about our “Strategical Survival Personality” and Joy Schaverian speaks of BS Syndrome, The Hidden Trauma. Oh yesss!
Of course, at the time I knew nothing else. As I get older and have the opportunity to reflect, I realize those early years were pretty weird. Thank God for the love of country cousins and horses!!
And so I journey on! Presently looking at E.M.D.R. and walking!!
