Since writing my last post, I have been developing a series of workshops that draw from the philosophy of Kintsugi and invited friend and fellow art psychotherapist to help me run them.
Kintsugi is the ancient Japanese art of mending a broken piece of pottery with lacquered gold. The tradition began as an aesthetically pleasing solution to mending a precious tea bowl in the 15th century. Its philosophy however, is rooted in the idea that an object’s history becomes the very thing that makes the object more precious and by enhancing its ‘brokenness’, which becomes part of its ‘story’, it becomes that much more beautiful.
As I mentioned before, Peter Levine compared Kintsugi to how we might view someone who has been through any number of life’s challenges such as; trauma, bereavement or loss and see that person as more beautiful with the marks of their experience as visible signs of their life’s journey.
How wonderful then to embrace our imperfections, our fragility, our tender hearts and celebrate these as part of our humanity, particularly in a time where culture not only encourages the opposite but rewards it.
So the aim of these workshops are to bring a little bit of Kintsugi into your life.
I will post dates, times and more details soon.
Lisa Snook - Art Psychotherapist 