Selena Hicks

As an emerging art therapist, I feel as though I am constantly growing and learning. My journey through The Woods has been something that has changed my life forever. I am grateful for the teachings, experiences and shifts that have taken place for me during the years I have spent here. This journey has given me tools to not only better understand myself but how to understand and support clients that I come across in the future. I am looking forward to the continuation of this learning and growth of my identity.

My identity as an Art Therapist is deeply rooted in how much art has become a vessel for me. It has truly become a way I can channel and process what is going on in my life as well as the lives of the clients I work with. It has given me the space to take a deep breath and remind myself of what it feels like to be present for both my professional and personal life. Permission was given to explore and uncover things about myself I had never spent much time considering. I feel that going through this journey I have tapped into core parts of who I am and why they are important to me. By leaning into my art and channeling my emotions, feelings, transference, and triggers, I began to dig deeper into my history, familial, ancestral, cultural, etc. These concepts come through in various aspects of my art. There are often repetitive shapes, feathers, and strong line work in many of my pieces this is homage and connections to my family and my ancestors. There are themes of transformation, growth, struggle, and suffering in both my personal and response art that speak volumes of my lived experiences thus far, those that have come before me and those that clients may be experiencing. The more vulnerable and present I became for myself and my personal response art the more it allowed me to see and meet my clients exactly where they are, open and honestly.