Emotional patterning: A comic essay

Sofia Sabbagh

Creative art therapist statement 

I wrote this comic in response to my studies at MIECAT on ‘emotional patterning’. Using personal and collaborative creative inquiries I unpacked moments of becoming hyper/hypo aroused (Seigal, 1999) and strategies of coping. Understanding the function of the amygdala and frontal cortex (Rothschild, 2004) helped me to further understand my emotional experience and what I might need when I am struggling.

While studying emotional patterning, the town I was living in flooded (Lismore, Widjabul Wia-ble Country). The climate-change-driven disaster was shocking and I needed to understand my signs of hyper/hypo arousal in order to be present with the situation at hand. During the crisis I noticed my dysregulated state, and while I could not always change it, noticing it helped me to make decisions and have more perspective (Rothschild, 2004). Understanding my own sensory profile helped me to address health as a social phenomenon (Unger, 2005) in a form that respected my own needs.

“In the framework of emergence, the whole is a mirror of the parts” (Brown, 2017, p. 13), and the process of writing the comic became a mirror to the comic’s messages. After weeks of urgency and the physical effort of post-flood cleaning, focusing on the content of an essay seemed like an impossible task and drawing felt self-indulgent. The process of making this comic helped me to sit down, focus and soothe my senses. The visual narrative was also re-affirming. As I told the story of my learning how to self-regulate, I got to see myself learn and re-experience my own capacity. It was affirming.

As I write this, Victoria (where I currently live, in Wurundjeri Country) is flooding and has triggered the same patterns of hyper-arousal. It seems that sharing this comic publicly with JoCAT re-affirms my capacity to stay within my “Window of Tolerance” (Seigal, 1999). I hope that people can learn accessible tools for emotional regulation and it can help them as if it has me.