‘ANGREY JOEL, THE BOY WHO WAS HURT’

2023

Hearts Psychotherapy – Digital Storytelling Commission

Belinda from Hearts Psychotherapy commissioned me to bring her vision to life through a digital story exploring the heart of trauma-informed practice. I was given full creative freedom to shape the visuals, responding intuitively to Belinda’s powerful narration and deep insight. Her inspiration for this project came from years of primary school teaching and more recently, as an arts therapist. She would often hear children being describes as having ‘anger issues’, with perhaps little consideration of what the child may have experiences in their life. For example, abandonment, bullying, neglect domestic abuse etc.

With her beautiful voice and years of experience as both a teacher and arts therapist, this piece is a moving reminder that behaviour is communication—and that behind every ‘angry child’ is often a story of pain, loss, or neglect. There are always reasons behind ‘bad behaviour’.

Created for all the ‘Joels’ out there who’ve felt misunderstood, and for the adults who support them, this project is a gentle call to compassion and curiosity in how we meet distress.

“Trauma-informed practice aims to increase practitioner’ awareness of how trauma can negatively impact on individuals and communities, and their ability to feel safe or develop trusting relationships with health and care services and their staff” GOV.UK