My approach to papermaking was to tear up junk mail and scrap paper from projects that no longer felt helpful. I added tiny squares of foiled paper to the pulp to give a confetti look to the otherwise drab pulp. After pulling about 20 sheets with a 4”x4” plastic canvas square, I added purple acrylic paint and dried purple flowers to the pulp and pulled about 10 more sheets. I also attempted to use a round wire mesh splatter shield, but I was unhappy with the results and added those sheets back to the vat.
The first population I thought would benefit from this process was adults with anxiety disorders. However, the transformative qualities of making something new and usable from old clothing or papers felt most powerful to me for clients who experience gender dysphoria. Unneeded documentation with dead-names or pronouns, photos, self-portraits, junk mail, any natural fiber (and mixed with synthetic materials, if desired) could all be pulped together and repurposed entirely. I envision a series of individual sessions where the client can process their letting go of these artifacts slowly and with breaks to complete other artwork or engage in verbal processing, as necessary. Papermaking can be used in an individual session if the client is requiring a personalized holding environment, but it could also be deployed in a group setting to bolster development of growth-fostering social connections. If this material spoke deeply to a client, they would also be able to use it in a solitary fashion outside of therapy for self-care.
Think of how tearing something down to recreate it corresponds to resilience in the face of adversity. Think of the Five Rs of the neurosequential model of therapeutics that support healing from trauma (Perry, 2009), and how they can be invoked purposefully in the rhythm of tearing or cutting of the raw materials, the repetition of meeting with the therapist weekly, the deeply personal relevance of the objects being sacrificed and remade, and the relational support of the therapeutic alliance. Think of all the things that paper can become.
References
Perry, B. D. (2009). Examining child maltreatment through a neurodevelopmental lens: Clinical applications of the neurosequential model of therapeutics. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 14(4). Pp. 240-255.
