The Untidiness of Healing: Using Clay as a Healing Medium for People with Chronic Illness
Combining
scripture and clay can be used as healing modalities for people who live with chronic
illnesses. People with chronic illnesses experience many stages of grief and
adjustment as they learn to navigate their changing world. Chronic illness can
be traumatic, and the journey can present depression, anger, displaced
self-efficacy, physical pain, body image issues, family stressors and more.
Using
art as a healing tool in trauma is well-researched. Clay in particular can be
an excellent medium to use with people experiencing chronic illness. By nature,
clay is much like chronic illness; it’s imperfect, messy, unpredictable,
malleable and crumbly. Just as health can fall apart and be rebuilt, so can
clay. Clay is a tangible medium that can help people tell their stories, while
connecting their mind, bodies and spirit.
Jeremiah
18 affirms that God is the master potter.
18 This is the word that came to
Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Go
down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.”
3 So I went down to the
potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping
from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another
pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.5 Then the word of
the Lord came to me. 6 He
said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.” (NIV)
God
sits at the Potter’s wheel and forms each of us uniquely in His hands. And just
like clay, we can be formed and reformed throughout our lives. There can be
understanding, acceptance and comfort in knowing that even though our bodies
may change and bring discomfort and disability, God still has a master plan for
our lives. There is purpose for our journeys. It can just sometimes take time
to find that path when our health becomes unrecognizable, and even when we face
something chronic that may become terminal.
As
we work alongside someone struggling to understand and accept their illness,
the imagery of how God creates and recreates each of us unique can invited
engagement with the clay. There is more to the creation after it’s off the Potter’s
wheel. Clay can be imprinted with designs, smoothed or other-wise textured, glazed,
fired, and more. These are metaphors for the control people do have with chronic
illness, and the steps they can take to be proactive along their journey. For
example, choosing to participate in physical therapy, adapting one’s wardrobe, exploring
dietary changes and working on a way to adhere to this, exploring different or
modified employment, finding spiritual outlets to deal with grief and frustration
(such as meditating on scriptures, journaling and using art for trauma healing),
and more.
Clay is from the earth -
just as we are made from the earth ourselves.
Jeremiah calls us to become like supple clay in the Potter’s hands. God’s has a purpose for the way He molds us into something new, and there can be beauty in knowing that our Creator intended from the beginning of time for us to be molded into something beautiful.
There
can be joy and fulfilled living even with the challenges of chronic illness,
and clay is an excellent art medium to affirm the connection between our
Creator and us. Clay doesn’t have to be formed into something purposeful during
a session. It’s more about the process of sitting with the clay, and through handling
it and meditating on the scripture from Jeremiah (or others that may be
favorites) that the process of getting in touch with emotions, storytelling ,
community-building, and healing can occur.
You do not have to be an art therapist to use clay with people you are working among who are in physical, emotional and spiritual pain due to illness/disability. When scripture is carefully pulled alongside the use of clay, God's healing presence can be experienced in a safe and encouraging environment.
For more information about using arts for trauma healing, explore the opportunities offered at Dallas International University's Center for Excellence in World Arts (CEWA) program.
Resources:
https://www.theguesthouseocala.com/clay-play-and-depression/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/030802260807100302
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28433887/
https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/4980/Clay.htm
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