Learning to Journal Traumatic Events Creatively with Metaphors

Intermedia Projects Inc. is developing a program to enable creative journaling of complex traumatic events. How many people have been encouraged to put everything behind you, forget about it, and get on with life? Unfortunately, this seemingly rational advice is precisely what makes possible the repeat of traumatic events in different contexts. Here is the film I made: https://vimeo.com/948113230 The password is Narrative.

This film is the story of a well-practiced con artist, grifter, and gas-lighting 76-year-old man. We were “boyfriend and girlfriend” in Denver when we were 17. We made out in his 56 Chevy. I remembered his voice when he called after finding me on LinkedIn 58 years later. After moving into my home in Albuquerque, the 74-year-old version of the boyfriend beat me up and called the police, saying that I had threatened him by walking towards him with scissors. I did not threaten him with scissors, and he left out the part about beating me into a dissociative trauma trance. Because Pete called the police first, they took me to jail and charged me with two felonies. This is the policy in New Mexico. Imagine that happening to you without warning; you are suddenly without any agency, entirely under the thumb of the penal system, and you don’t know how or why you got into that position.

The plot is rendered through voiced text messages and narrations. Emotions are expressed and move the narrative forward through visual and sound metaphors. However, the tension builds without shocking visual images.

Intermedia Projects, is an Art-Science organization. Because of the experience of our Creative Director we have decided to develop a program that will enable victims of abuse through journaling and finding personal metaphors to help heal in this process. We will begin in Albuquerque and try to expand to the entire state of New Mexico working with nonprofits who deal with abuse.