We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Bridget Steed. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Bridget below.
Bridget, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
Both of my parents are artists so I grew up around a lot of music, visual art and theater. While neither of them did art full-time or necessarily made a living from it, an artistic career seemed to me to be a perfectly logical thing to pursue. When I was about nine, I submitted a colored pencil drawing to National Geographic Kids magazine and it was chosen to be published. I’m pretty sure that helped cement for me what my childhood-self already hoped was true–that I was an artist. I look back now and laugh at the ease with which I claimed that title, but a creative path was the only path I ever wanted to take. I also had a lot of fear and anxiety growing up and was very shy. The expressive arts–namely drawing, dance, music, and drama–helped immensely by giving me an outlet through which I could channel all of the worry I held in my mind and body and find a way to transform it into something different. I see the artist’s path as a healing path, where the parts of ourselves that feel scary or uncomfortable but wish to be acknowledged can safely be brought into the light. On a subconscious level, I have been using “art as therapy” my whole life but it wasn’t until I became an Expressive Arts Therapist that I fully understood how artistic expression positively impacts the mind and body.
Bridget, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a multimodal artist and Expressive Arts Therapist currently living on the beautiful (and hot!) Yucatán Peninsula in southern Mexico. I work as a teletherapist for a nonprofit mental health agency where I see kids and adolescents, while also maintaining my own art-based practice and business. The arts have been a positive force in my life since I was a kid. I’ve explored many different forms of artistic expression along the way (including six years as a singer in a bluegrass band!) and continue to feel the most like myself when I am engaged in an art process. For me, the cure for any feeling of dis-regulation or “stuck-ness” in life is always to start creating something. It immediately gets me out of my head (where I tend to live) and into my body (where I want to spend more time living!) As far as visual art, I work mostly in acrylic paint, collage, and 3D assemblage. I never go in with a plan and approach each piece intuitively, which means making space for whatever wants to show up and trusting the process. The term “multimodal” just means I use a combination of expressive art forms in my work. For example, I often combine movement with visual art and then do some creative writing based on the visual art piece. Music is still a big part of my life so singing usually finds its way into the process as well.
Most recently, I’ve been creating nature assemblages using found materials native to my current environment. From Ashland, Oregon, to Bellingham, Washington, to where I’m now living in Merida, Yucatán, the process involves gathering local foliage along with any other natural found objects that catch my eye (shells, feathers, sticks, stones, flowers…) and combining them with collage materials to create what I see as little ecosystems. I don’t glue anything down and, once the piece has been photographed and I feel I’m ready to let it go, I either return the materials back to nature or reuse them in another assemblage, making this process a true study in impermanence! I call this collection, “Listen to the Land,” as nature has always been a place of solace and healing for me and I feel she has lots to teach us, especially now.
My journey from artist to therapist felt very natural for me. Without being fully conscious of it, I have been using art therapeutically my whole life and, through some interesting twists of fate, I was ultimately led to obtain a Master’s Degree in Art Therapy, followed by post-graduate studies in Person-Centered Expressive Arts Therapy. Now, when I work with clients as a licensed therapist, I utilize the same multimodal approach I use in my own process and combine visual art, music, movement, song, drama, and writing to help with a myriad of social/emotional and somatic issues. I tend to work with underserved populations who may not have previously had access to mental health services or were only offered traditional talk therapy which, while valuable, can be limiting. Introducing my clients to alternate ways of self-expression and processing emotions feels like providing them with a key to a door that has been waiting to be unlocked. There are some really fascinating emerging fields that study the positive impact art has on human beings. Neuroarts, for example, shows us that the positive changes that occur in a person’s body, brain and behavior after not only engaging in an aesthetic experience, but also just by witnessing one, are actually measurable. This is great news because it means the fields of Art Therapy and Expressive Arts Therapy are also starting to be better understood, taken more seriously, and utilized in more settings.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I have always had the desire to work with people in other countries and explore what “art as healing” looks like for other cultures. To that end, I have been the Arts & Recovery Team Lead for an international humanitarian relief organization called Disastershock since the start of the pandemic. We are an all volunteer organization with members from 27 different countries and our free coping resources have been translated into 27 languages and disseminated all over the world. Our goal is to help children and families affected by disaster-related stress and trauma. We have a rich Arts & Recovery section as well, with lots of helpful information and resources about the expressive arts and healing, including actual expressive arts activities for kids and adults, a global art gallery, a blog where people share their stories of how art has helped them, articles and videos about each expressive arts modality, and more. I also serve on the Board of Directors for the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IEATA), which is another non-profit, global organization dedicated to nurturing the creative spirit through the use of multimodal arts processes for personal and community growth, transformation, and healing.
The mission driving me, through my work with these two organizations as well as my clinical work and personal art practice, is the desire to help more people discover that they have within them a deep well of untapped inner resources that can be accessed through creative expression. At a time when so many are struggling with mental health issues, including chronic loneliness and disconnection, my desire is to provide as many people as possible with tools that can help them feel fully expressed as their authentic selves. I value Expressive Arts Therapy because it is a modality that everyone has the ability to utilize in some capacity, as it can be adapted to accommodate any number of physical and cognitive limitations. Art also bypasses language, making it a highly beneficial therapeutic option for those who are nonverbal. My ultimate dream is to create “healing arts studios” in areas around the world where access to these types of mental health services are few and far between.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I love seeing and feeling the empowerment that comes from authentic self-expression, both in myself and others. Witnessing someone be brave enough to create something–anything!–feels like a gift every time I get to be a part of it. I believe we’re all artists in our own way and each of us has some unique type of expression that the world needs. As a therapist, it feels really rewarding to help others uncover just what that “something” is, particularly those who feel disenfranchised or who society deems as having nothing to offer. I’ve been told that, as humans, we are truly wired for art and driven to create. When I make art, I feel like I’m sharing a little piece of who I am and putting an offering out there for others to connect with. I can’t really see myself doing anything else!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bridgetsteed.com
- Other: https://preciouscargoexpressiveartstherapy.com https://www.disastershock.com https://www.ieata.org
Image Credits
“Self-portrait with leaf” image credit: Miguel Yga