Zoë Armstrong | This Is How I Listen: The Art of Dyslexia

Apr 24

Written By Katie Newman

Artist talk: May 22

Zoë Armstrong
This Is How I Listen:
The Art of Dyslexia

Focus Gallery, May 7 - 29, 2021

Dr. Zoë Armstrong, DAT, BCATR, RCAT. Co-owner of Ignite Counselling.

I am an artist and an art therapist, and I am neurodiverse. I have been diagnosed as gifted with profound dyslexia and ADD. I process and integrate information and knowledge in a very different way, and because of how my brain works differently, I have had to find ways to adjust and compensate.

I provide art therapy with a focus on trauma, grief and loss, as well as crisis intervention. In art therapy sessions, I help clients produce artwork, which provides a different way for people to express, convey and process their emotions and experiences and to heal. While my clients are making art and sharing, I am also making art while I am listening to my clients. It is how I listen, process what I am being told, and how I connect ideas and concepts. Creating art gives me the ability to give my full attention to a client.

This exhibit is comprised of drawings I created during hundreds of art therapy sessions.

ARTIST STATEMENT
These drawings are very different from the art I create outside of work. Art created at work is how I listen, the art is not planned or thought out, it just happens as I am listening and speaking with my clients. They are more like what someone with a neurotypical brain might consider notes that are taken during session. I then use the art that my client and I have created to bring me back to conversations with clients and moments during session to create clinical notes. In that way, the art that I have created does not contain privileged information or have any meaning to anyone but me.

I chose to share these drawings because I want to share how my brain works differently. I was diagnosed in 2019 while working on my doctoral dissertation. This diagnosis brought with it a flood of emotions: anger that it was not discovered earlier and that so many things could have been easier; grief and loss over missed opportunities, choices, time wasted, and not being able to share my ideas; and finally, relief at understanding how come I found so many things difficult and confusing. This diagnosis has also freed me to feel able, if not comfortable, to reach out and ask for the help, support and accommodations that I need. I no longer feel ashamed, embarrassed, or that I have to hide my differences.

I hope this art exhibit gives people a small window of experience into what it feels like to be in my neurodiverse brain. I want to share how busy my mind is, how many different directions it is going in and how interesting and useful it is to think in a different way.

Finally, I am optimistic that sharing my personal experience may support others in being diagnosed earlier, so that they are able to access the supports and accommodations that they need to feel confident, and successful.