Virginia Bunnell (Bunnie) Graham

Ph.D. Depth Psychology
Art Therapist

Virginia Bunnell (Bunnie) Graham is a Board Certified Registered Art Therapist (ATR-BC), with a Ph.D. in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She holds an M.Ed. from the University of Florida, and an M.S. in Art Therapy from FSU. Bunnie has worked as art therapist 5 years at PCC, and at Journey into Wholeness, a Jungian Christian retreat group. She hosts a Dream Study Group at First Presbyterian Church.

Dr. Graham is a member of First Presbyterian Church, Daytona Beach, FL and has lived locally for 35 years. She and her husband Dick have two grown sons and a daughter-in-law.

She helps clients express themselves for insight and self-discovery, trusting that psyche wants to heal itself. Visually exploring troublesome feelings allows us to respond to these symptoms for vitality and resilience in life. Art skills are not needed.

Art Therapy is a method of creating spontaneous images to discover your potential and find resolutions to life's questions.

C. G. Jung says we have an inner need for serious play. "The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect, but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the object it loves." Art Therapy is a way to play seriously: first to express, then to reflect, and then to integrate emotions formerly unknown to us.

The client and therapist relationship is confidential. In the free and protected space of the art therapy room, you can look at fears and problems. When you can picture something unknown and then reflect on it in a safe place, you can gain surprising insights that help heal your worries. In a hands-on process with ordinary art materials, you can discover your own creative resources and insights, inviting your healing potentials into awareness.

Sometimes we do not have words for what is causing trouble; but working with an image of the problem is a way to address symptoms of stress and depression. Images are closely connected to our deep feelings, more so than words, and when we engage these feelings, the psyche can heal itself. One can investigate a big question or explore painful conflicts.

We all can use companionship on our journeys to emotional wholeness.

If you come to my office, you can work with the sandtray, using miniature figures that personify feelings and events. You can paint, make a collage, draw scribbles, and play with clay. A thing can look messy or pretty or weird. However it comes out, we can begin to explore it.

Drawing a circular mandala is another way to express and see our feelings in color and form. We can also look at your dreams to discover hidden aspects of yourself. Dreams serve as a self-balancing gyroscope, telling us things about ourselves that we ought to know but don't know.

Finding meaning in ordinary life is basic to living with joy. Learning some methods to deal with life can transform inner conflict, and increase our sense of autonomy in relation to the divine.

Life's transitions are difficult because we naturally resist change. We fear letting go of what we are used to, even if it does not work any more. Art therapy is a good way to imagine how things really are; then we can imagine what else could be true.

Personal Growth: Sometimes one's deep inner self chafes at the ego's decisions, and a person feels divided, struggling with painful issues.

Working with images can help one clarify life's direction, feel competent, and rejuvenate resilience.

Finding meaning: Our experience of our own inner truth is therapeutic in itself. I believe each of us embodies a spark of the divine which informs our true individuality in relation to God. Attending these deep inner symbols can help a suffering soul.

How do religion and psychology mix? Jung writes, "Among all my patients in the second half of life—that is to say, over thirty-five—there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life." (CW11, par. 509)

What does Jung mean by religious? One translation is re-ligio, relating to God through careful observation of important feelings. Through attention to symbols, a person can connect to the divine. A personal experience of the sacred in ordinary life links us with God and enriches life with meaning.