In some ways, this post feels like an homage to a client that chose to trust me and teach me. Working with a client with suicidal ideation can at times limit material choices due to safety precautions and policies. The client I am referencing in this post has a significant trauma history and was hospitalized for a severe suicide attempt. When I went to introduce myself to this client, she shared with me her love and interest in fiber arts. As many of my classmates have grown to know, I have never been a fiber artist and continuously struggle to learn how to knit, sew, or crochet. Unable to provide her knitting needles or crochet hooks, I asked her if she would be interested in finger knitting. During this session with this particular patient, I would not be able to leave the yarn with her, this process would only be temporary and would exist under my supervision. At the beginning of the session, we spent some time discussing her interest in the arts, and slowly she began to teach me how to finger knit. Creating together we formed a glimpse of trust with one another as she shared how she learned how to knit from positive social support in her life, how she found online platforms centered around fiber arts, and how this medium allowed her to have some autonomy in our time together.
There are several beneficial qualities to the process of artmaking within fiber arts. Knitting and finger knitting is known to be meditative as suggested by its rhythmic, repetitive, and sensory process. According to Riley et al., (2013) knitting is known to be a practice that stimulates engagement, a sense of accomplishment. and helped facilitate a sense of belonging. For many knitting resonates with a sense of community organized in a common interest, learning, stress relief, and creativity (Riley et al., 2013). Dunlop suggests, that when adolescents experience complex trauma they experience a range of difficulties in their biopsychosocial experience. One function that often adolescents with trauma struggle with is the ability to identify and regulate emotions. Knitting and crocheting are known to have flow-inducing rhymic properties that can increase emotional regulation.
Dunlop, E. (2019). Knitting and Crocheting as an Art Therapy Coping Strategy for
Adolescents with Complex Trauma. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
Riley, C. (2013). The Benefits of Knitting for Personal and Social Wellbeing in Adulthood:
Findings from an International Survey. The British Journal of Occupational Therapy,
76(2), 50–57. https://doi.org/10.4276/030802213X13603244419077