What Actually Happens in a SoulCollage® Session?

Maybe you've read a little about SoulCollage®.

You understand that it is a practice of working with images to access parts of ourselves that may not always be available through words.

Maybe something about it intrigues you.

But you still have one very practical question:

What exactly are we going to do?

It's a fair question.

When people hear the word collage, they often imagine an art class.

They picture scissors, glue, magazines, and people trying to make something beautiful.

There are scissors and glue. There are certainly plenty of images.

But what happens in a SoulCollage® session is less about making art and much more about listening.

You are creating a card, yes.

But more importantly, you are creating a place for something within you to become visible.

We Begin by Arriving

Before we choose images or begin making anything, we slow down.

This matters.

Most of us move through our days responding to what is directly in front of us.

There are people who need us, things to remember, decisions to make, messages to answer, and a mind that is often already thinking about the next thing before we have finished the one we are doing.

SoulCollage® asks us to enter a different rhythm.

We arrive.

We become quiet enough to notice ourselves.

I may begin with a short meditation, a grounding practice, or simply an invitation to become aware of what is present.

You do not have to make anything happen.

You are simply creating a little space between yourself and the noise of the day.

From there, we begin.

Then We Let the Images Find Us

This is one of my favorite parts.

There are images everywhere.

Faces. Animals. Landscapes. Doors. Hands. Trees. Children. Roads. Water. Fire. Houses. Strange objects. Beautiful objects. Images that make perfect sense and images that make no sense at all.

Rather than searching for a particular picture, I invite you to browse slowly.

And notice.

Which image makes you stop?

Which one do you keep returning to?

Which one creates even the slightest response inside you?

Maybe you love it.

Maybe it unsettles you.

Maybe you have no idea why you want it.

You don't have to know.

In fact, I often encourage people not to figure it out too quickly.

Our minds are very good at creating explanations. SoulCollage® gives us an opportunity to let something else lead for a while.

You might simply notice:

I want that one.

And trust that enough to pick it up.

You Begin Creating Your Card

Once you have gathered several images, you begin experimenting with them.

You might place one image beside another and immediately know they belong together.

You might cut away the background of one photograph.

You might place an enormous bird behind the image of a small child.

You might create a woman whose dress becomes an ocean.

You might cover the entire card with trees and place a single doorway in the center.

There are no rules about what the image is supposed to mean.

And there is no requirement that the card make sense.

This is important because the temptation is often to begin telling a story too soon.

"Oh, this must represent my mother."

"This is probably about my childhood."

"I chose the bird because I want freedom."

Maybe.

But maybe not.

For now, we allow the card to become what it wants to become.

We cut.

Arrange.

Move things around.

Remove something.

Add something.

And eventually there is often a moment when the card simply feels finished.

Not perfect.

Finished.

Then Something Changes

This is the moment when SoulCollage® becomes something more than collage.

We put down the scissors.

We stop arranging.

And we look.

Really look.

The card is no longer simply a collection of magazine images.

Something has been created that did not exist before.

And now we become curious about it.

Instead of immediately asking, "What does my card mean?" we allow the card to tell us.

This distinction is subtle, but it is at the heart of the practice.

We are not interpreting the card from the outside.

We are entering into a relationship with it.

"I Am One Who..."

One of the primary ways we do this in SoulCollage® is through a practice called I Am

One Who...

You look at your card and imagine allowing the figure, energy, or presence within the card to speak.

You begin:

I am one who...

And then you wait.

You might hear:

I am one who has been carrying everyone.

Or:

I am one who wants to be left alone.

Or:

I am one who knows how to play.

You keep going.

I am one who...

I am one who...

I am one who...

At first, you may feel as though you are making it up.

That's okay.

You don't have to decide where the words are coming from.

Just keep listening.

Often, something begins to shift.

A sentence appears that you weren't expecting.

An emotion rises.

A memory comes.

You suddenly understand why you chose a particular image.

Or perhaps nothing dramatic happens at all, but you recognize something quietly true

about yourself.

That is enough.

We Can Ask the Card Questions

Once the voice of the card begins to emerge, we can become even more curious.

We might ask:

What do you want me to know?

What are you afraid of?

What are you protecting?

What do you need from me?

What gift do you bring into my life?

What happens when I don't listen to you?

And perhaps one of my favorite questions:

What have I forgotten that you remember?

This is not about trying to produce the "right" answer.

We are allowing whatever wants to emerge to emerge.

Sometimes the answers are playful.

Sometimes profound.

Sometimes confusing.

Sometimes deeply emotional.

And sometimes a card remains mysterious for months or even years.

We don't have to force understanding.

We can let the relationship unfold.

What If Something Emotional Comes Up?

Sometimes it does.

You may create a card and suddenly feel sadness.

You may remember something.

You may recognize a pattern you have been living for a very long time.

You may feel anger, tenderness, grief, relief, or even tremendous joy.

And sometimes you will simply have fun cutting up magazines.

All of these experiences belong.

We do not go searching for trauma.

We do not push ourselves toward painful memories.

We do not assume that every image contains some hidden wound that needs to be uncovered.

We work with what naturally arises.

If something tender appears, we slow down.

We stay curious.

We allow you to remain in relationship with yourself rather than pushing past what feels comfortable.

For me, this is an essential part of healing.

We don't need to force the unconscious open.

We create enough safety and spaciousness that something within us can choose to come forward.

Sometimes We Retrieve Something

What comes forward is not always something painful.

Sometimes we retrieve a part of ourselves we had forgotten.

The artist.

The adventurer.

The sensual woman.

The child who loved wandering through the woods.

The person who once had enormous dreams.

The one who knows how to say no.

The one who knows how to rest.

The one who trusts herself.

The unconscious doesn't only hold what wounded us.

It also holds pieces of our aliveness.

And sometimes a SoulCollage® card becomes the doorway through which one of those pieces returns.

Sometimes We Discover Something We Are Ready to Release

At other times, a card helps us see something we have been carrying.

A role.

A belief.

An old protection.

A family expectation.

A way of being that once helped us belong but no longer feels like who we are becoming.

The goal isn't to make the card—or the part of ourselves it represents—go away.

We listen first.

We honor what it has carried.

We become curious about how it may have served us.

And from that place, we may begin to recognize that we have choices now that we did not have before.

The release doesn't necessarily happen because we decide, I'm never doing that again.

Sometimes it is much quieter.

Something has simply been seen.

And what has been seen no longer needs to work quite so hard to get our attention.

You Begin Building a Deck

One SoulCollage® card can be meaningful.

But there is something especially beautiful about continuing the practice over time.

You make another card.

And another.

Eventually you begin to recognize an entire inner landscape.

There are cards representing different parts of you. Cards connected to people who have shaped your life. Cards carrying the energy of animals. Cards that seem larger than your personal story and connect you with archetypal or spiritual dimensions of life.

You begin building your own personal SoulCollage® deck.

No one else can make your deck.

And no two decks will ever be the same.

Because the cards are not simply a collection of images.

They are a collection of relationships.

Each one becomes another place where you can listen.

You Can Return to the Cards Again and Again

Your cards don't become irrelevant once you understand them.

You return to them.

You may pull a card when you are struggling with a decision.

You may choose several cards when you feel stuck.

You may ask:

Who within me needs to be heard right now?

You may look through your deck and notice that one particular card keeps catching your attention.

Or you may revisit a card you created years ago and discover that it has something entirely different to say to the person you are today.

The cards become companions.

Not because they have magical answers hidden inside them, but because they help you access your own inner knowing.

They give you another way to listen to yourself.

What Do I Need to Bring?

Mostly, yourself.

You do not need artistic experience.

You do not need to bring a carefully thought-out intention.

You do not need to know what you want to work on.

You don't even need to understand SoulCollage®.

You can arrive exactly as you are.

Curious.

Skeptical.

Excited.

Nervous.

Certain that you are "not creative."

All of it is welcome.

We begin there.

Come Without Knowing

There is something wonderfully freeing about entering a practice without needing to

know what you are going to discover.

So much of life asks us to know.

What do you want?

What's your plan?

What's wrong?

How are you going to fix it?

Where are you going?

SoulCollage® offers a different invitation.

Come without knowing.

Choose the image you cannot explain.

Make the card you didn't plan.

Listen to the voice you didn't know was there.

And see what happens.

You may discover something that needs your attention.

You may meet a part of yourself that has been carrying something for a very long time.

You may remember something beautiful about who you are.

Or you may simply spend a few hours cutting, creating, wondering, and listening.

There is no particular place you are supposed to arrive.

The practice is the listening.

And perhaps that is what makes SoulCollage® such a beautiful part of healing.

We aren't asking ourselves to become someone new.

We are making space to meet more of who is already here.

One thing I especially like about having these as two separate posts is that together they mirror the experience itself: the first post creates the pull toward SoulCollage®, while this one creates enough safety for someone to actually try it.

With Love, Maria