TRANSCEND TRAUMA
Transcending Trauma Through Creativity
This covers trauma and how it links with creative and artistic practice, and how I've come to understand why art so often saves us when we desperately need it. Some of it may be practical for those who suffer. Mostly, I hope it inspires people to be more involved in the creative process — with no end game, simply for art's sake.
What the research actually shows
The creative process is mysterious by nature, but there's real research behind why it matters so much to people who've lived through trauma. A 2018 study — Childhood Adversity and the Creative Experience in Adult Performing Artists, by Paula Thompson and S.V. Jaque, published in Frontiers in Psychology — found that artists with four or more adverse childhood experiences had measurably more intense creative experiences than those without. They reported a loss of self-consciousness, a greater sense of connection to something larger than themselves, more emotional intensity that still coexisted with emotional stability, and a heightened, almost spiritual awareness during the act of creating. None of that is coincidence. We know trauma changes the brain — and it turns out being creative changes it back, including higher-order cognitive functioning and a calmer nervous system.
I'm not a neuroscientist, but I'd recommend the book Your Brain on Art to anyone curious — it explains, far better than I can, what's actually happening in our heads when we make something. Studies suggest that just forty-five minutes of focused creating can significantly lower cortisol. There's also the flow state — theta brainwaves, similar to meditation — that lets you fully immerse in the present moment and briefly switch off rumination.
Speaking only for myself: my everyday existence often feels like a continuous loop of fear. My body runs on fight-or-flight even when there's no lion in the room. It's only by entering that creative, different brainwave state that I get to feel free from the shackles of psychological pain — for an hour or two. We can't stay in recovery permanently through art alone. But we can, and do, transcend trauma, at least temporarily. That's not a small thing. Sometimes temporary is the only door available, and you walk through the ones that are actually open.
What creativity can and can't do
I want to be precise about this, because I think it matters: transcending trauma through creativity works on the brain in a way similar to meditation, but creating won't heal every coping strategy or piece of maladaptive behaviour, and it won't erase the pain caused by everything a person has survived, or the negative messages trauma hardwires into us — the belief that we're unworthy of love, dignity, respect, even self-respect. When we're suffering, we very often need professional support to work through the complexity of our individual wounds. What creating does offer is temporary relief from the self that identifies with that pain. It's almost alchemical — turning darkness and pain into something closer to joy and love, happening right there in the here and now.
We need art the way we need air
The military are now using the arts to help veterans recover from PTSD and traumatic brain injuries — there's good detail on this on the Your Brain on Art website, and I fundamentally don't believe those benefits are trivial. Yet we still live in a left-brain-dominant world where the rewards of art aren't taken seriously enough. More holistic approaches to recovery are essential to real progress. There are countries now prescribing the arts through doctors, social workers, and mental health professionals — and it really does work. The act of creating keeps the relentless inner pain at bay.
When cortisol and other stress chemicals run through our systems over time, they take a toll on physical wellbeing too — the body genuinely does keep the score. But for a transient moment, creating gives you a place of love and peace in the soul. Absolute absorption and focus on the present — the truest here and now. A temporary taste of a free spirit. Also known, simply, as creating.
We need art like we need the air we breathe. It isn't pretentious. It's based in science, and in human nature.
You are believed. What happened to you, and what it's done to you since, is real — and there are people who will hold space for that truth rather than look away from it.
Please consider talking to someone you trust — a friend, a family member, anyone who'll actually listen without rushing you to be okay. You don't have to carry this by yourself.
You can also reach:
Samaritans — 116 123, free, 24 hours a day, every day. You don't need to be in crisis to call.
NHS Talking Therapies — free, confidential, and you can refer yourself directly without needing to see a GP first. Search "NHS Talking Therapies self-referral" plus your local area to find your service.
Shout — text SHOUT to 85258 for free, confidential crisis support by text, any time.
National Domestic Abuse Helpline — 0808 2000 247, free, 24/7, for anyone affected by domestic abuse.
If you're in immediate danger or crisis, call 999, or go to your nearest A&E.
