Creative Arts and Critical Enquiry

Recent research suggests cause for concern, with the wellbeing of university students lower than for adults within the general population (Cummins, 2003; Stewart & Podbury, 2003). Promoting wellbeing of tertiary students has been recognised as an important aim for universities (Tsouros, Dowding, Thompson, & Dooris, 1998).  The most effective way to promote wellbeing among young people is through peer-to-peer communication (Oliver, Collin, Burns, & Nicholas, 2006). With these findings in mind, BOUNCE was conceived. BOUNCE is a Web 2.0 resource developed by, and for, students at RMIT.  It was based on positive psychology principles and involved more than 1000 students in the creation, design, development, and evaluation of the resource. BOUNCE used multidisciplinary work-integrated learning student groups in order to build the student-centred online resource to enhance the wellbeing of RMIT students. The development of key partnerships across the university between academics and Student Wellbeing services, as well as students from different disciplines, was one of the key outcomes of the project.

The arts are a language that can cross many boundaries, move across cultures and time and speak directly to a part of us that is intuitive, felt and still.  It is through the process of making or witnessing a creative work that something that resides within us can speak to us of its wisdom and can emerge to inform the way we live.  This is my keynote address for the opening of the Art for Well being, at The Sacededge Festival, Queenscliff: 'the little festival with a big heart'.

The arts are a language of the spirit. As an artist, I have learned that we can connect more deeply with ourselves through making art. However, the beauty of the arts is that they can touch the heart across divides. Humans can erect divisions-most often unconsciously. We can focus on our differences, our separateness rather than our interconnection with all life, each other and the planet. We often see 'health' as an external manifestation of certain ways of being and behaving in the world. The definition of 'health' and 'wellness' can differ, however, if we look at them through the lens of different cultures, different religions, even different times in history.

As we move through the layers of the stories we carry we find those narratives, inherited from our ancestors, the transgenerational trauma that may have shaped us. In this life writing account, the author searches through her own life stories to find a constant witnessing consciousness, a Self untouched by the drama of life, a source of Hope.

Within us are many stories, some we use to define our sense of self, others perhaps reside within the depths of our psyche. For the past three years artist, writer and psychologist, Lara Bardsley, has used an intuitive methodology with the language of the arts to investigate the nature of self and the potential for continuing the evolution of human consciousness. 'Returning Home' speaks to this creative investigation and explores the stories that have emerged in answer to the question: Who are we?

Lara Bardsley reflects on the value of collecting ‘familial stories of loss, trauma, separation, suicide, and genocide’ for her research. Beautifully capturing her feelings of loss upon her PhD submission, she notes the ‘transformative power of witnessing our stories’ she has gained during the PhD, which she carries with her in her professional career.

Narrative is intricately embedded in human experience and is a potent means of shaping self-identity, imbuing meaning, facilitating insight and transforming awareness. This article reflects on the creative findings of a three and a half year exploration of self. Through the researcher’s auto-ethnographic reflections, her experience as an artist and psychologist, the power of the humanities as a method of becoming whole are explored. This article discusses cultivating a state of awareness where it is possible to compassionately witness the narratives of many selves both our own and in the people we work with, and how such a practice can inform healing.

An autoethnographic, transpersonal and practice-led exploration of the Persephone myth utilising the arts and creative writing as the language of the investigation. In the finished painting (attached) Persephone is appears to be emerging, her expression reflective. The embodied sensation is that Persephone is uniquely positioned in liminal territory, both queen of the underworld and comfortable on the surface. She is often defined by her mother's grief and longing, or her husband's passion. The artist explores her curiosity about Persephone's own mind and heart, independent of the pull of those who love her.

Postmodern theory indicates that a self-reflexive voice is a valid expression of cultural and temporal influences on language and meaning making. Transpersonal theories propose that ‘self’ is multiple and layered, some aspects of consciousness are more easily accessed, others, deeply held and previously unconscious. Narrative is intricately embedded in human experience and is a potent means of shaping self-identity, imbuing meaning, facilitating insight and transforming awareness. The creative arts form a unique, evocative means of investigating and expressing emergent narratives, conveying meaning and facilitating individual and collective transformation. This creative, practice-led investigation explores the question: Who are we?  Utilising an embodied and transpersonal methodology, a woman, artist and depth psychologist investigates the nature of self. The creative findings include fine art, photography, life-writing, a short film, an art novel and an exhibition. The researcher’s auto-ethnographic reflections discuss the impact of making the works, conclusions regarding their ramifications for understanding the nature of self, and their transformational potential. Returning Home alludes to the sense of cultivating a state of awareness where it is possible to compassionately witness the narratives of many selves, as well as the personal and global implications of doing so.

This article explores the merit of using Organic Inquiry, a qualitative research approach that is most effectively applied to areas of psychological and spiritual growth. Organic Inquiry is a research approach where the psyche of the researcher becomes the instrument of the research, working in partnership with the experiences of participants and guided by liminal and spiritual influences. Organic Inquiry is presented as a unique methodology that can incorporate other non-traditional research methods, including intuitive, autoethnographic and creative techniques. The validity and application of Organic Inquiry, as well as its strengths and limitations are discussed in the light of the author’s recent investigation into the nature of Self.

An interview by Dr Larisa Bardsley on what it means to have the trait of High Sensitvity, a form of neurodiversity.  Larisa is a Clinical and Counselling Psychologist, Supervisor of therapists, a published writer, academic and a practicing artist. She is also a highly sensitive person.

Ecologies are explored by a woman, artist and transpersonal psychologist as she narrates her intimate relationship with the psyche as an internal landscape, while also reflecting on the environments in which she lives. Ecologies include her relationship with the land surrounding her rural home and studio on the southern coast of Australia and some of its inhabitants. The central desert of Australia features as soul-scape of the artist and creative artworks form part of the language for this reflection. Human relationships, dreams, insights, “conversations” with both the ordinary and extra-ordinary, internal and external landscapes, are navigated within a transpersonal, creative and self-reflexive framework, including the author’s autoethnographic reflections. The discussion references Jungian and Buddhist theory and reflects upon the importance of a personal, emergent, and creative voice in contributing to understanding the ecology of the human psyche as well as the potential for transforming humanity’s relationship with the planet and its inhabitants.