Donna's Journey with Her Son Michael:
Healing as an Artistic Process

by Patricia Kaminski

Jann Garitty and I personally interviewed Donna in her beautiful home and studio, in rural Colfax, California. As our conversation developed, I learned that there was a larger germinal story behind Donna's current therapeutic work.

Donna's commitment to artistic healing involves more than academic training; her own life experiences have led her to this path. When she was 25 years old, her 16-year old brother was in a car accident that resulted in severe brain damage. Donna instinctively grabbed a bag of clay on her way to visit her brother, long before she ever heard the words “art therapy.”

She married and began her life with her husband, daughter and son. Her son Michael was a quiet but happy child—with an extraordinary ability to make things with his own hands. He seemed to be progressing normally until approximately age 9. Suddenly, his development curve stopped—speech and communication—including touching, holding, as well as speaking; all began to shut down. Even though there were no outer events or obvious sources of trauma, Michael withdrew more and more into his own world, accompanied by brain seizures as his condition worsened. It became impossible to understand what Michael was feeling by normal methods of communication.

The family embarked on a long search for healing answers. Many medical doctors and alternative healers devoted time to helping Michael. An exact diagnosis of his condition was never confirmed, although most of his symptoms suggested a severe form of expressive and receptive aphasia.

Donna's experience with her son was life-changing. She felt the determination to find help for her son no matter what it took. She embarked on a dedicated program of home-schooling, along with support from teachers, family and friends in the Sacramento Waldorf community. A pivotal experience came for her family when they attended a program founded by Barry and Suzy Kaufman after healing their own son of autism.

Over the course of five years, Donna felt that she had received an initiation in her own heart, a gift of a son to his mother. Reflecting back, Donna says that she learned through this journey the core values that continue to guide her current therapeutic work:

paying attention

living in and being present each moment

loving what is

trusting the unknown

awakening to what is and accepting it

listening with both heart and soul involved

In essence, her soul was learning to live with Michael as though it were an artistic process. There could be no program for Michael, or any single answer; it was a matter of living the question with him, and allowing his true being to unfold despite all the pain and uncertainty of the process. Donna spoke of the fine balance and exquisite challenge of helping to transform and bring healing, while at the same time unconditionally accepting and loving what is right now. She noted, “These qualities seem like opposites—and they are. But there is a way they can be woven together—this is the essence of the artistic healing process that I learned with and through Michael.”

Donna shared a touching and dramatic moment that seemed to be a culmination of this process. One day, she was sitting next to Michael and he started to have a seizure. She could feel welling up in his soul all the pain and frustration of having to endure this agonizing experience so many times over the years.

It was impossible to communicate with Michael in the normal way to tell him she understood and felt compassion for his anguish. She reached down into a deep place in her soul to try to find the way she could “speak” to him.

A complete peace and acceptance flooded over her. From the deep well of her being, she transmitted soul words of acceptance and comfort. “It's OK,” she spoke to him. “I have faith in you, I accept you.” Michael put his head on her shoulder. He came to complete rest. This was an extraordinary gesture of trust and intimacy for Michael, for he was not able to express feelings in this manner or initiate physical contact. Donna could feel what a sacred and transcendent moment was arising between their souls.

From that day forward, Michael never had another seizure. After that time, he gradually emerged from the interior world where his soul had taken refuge. By age 14—with the encouragement and help of two special friends his age, Timothy and Colin—Michael returned to Sacramento Waldorf School and graduated with his high school class.

As Donna told this astonishing healing story, I felt the spiritual power of the moment come right into the room. I saw in my inner vision, a vivid picture of Michelangelo's Pieta fill the space between us as we spoke. It was so compelling that I shared it with Donna.

Immediately, Donna jumped up! She escorted us into her kitchen where there was a large bay window. On it was sitting a hand-made clay version of Michelangelo's Pieta. When Michael returned to the Sacramento Waldorf School, many beautiful expressions of art poured out of his hands. One of the most precious to Donna was an clay model of the Pieta. Over the years, pieces of it have become broken and she glues them back on.

“Not a day goes by when I do not look upon this sculpture from Michael—it centers and connects me. In fact, our family recently took a trip to Europe. We were standing in long lines to see various pieces of art at the Vatican in Italy. Michael found the location for the Pieta and said, ‘You must come with me, Mom, this is the one thing we must see together when we are here.’”  Donna related how moving it was to stand with Michael—now her healthy adult young son so beaming with energy—and behold the beautiful sculpture of the Pieta together.

It was personally inspiring for me to hear Donna's story. As a student of the Holy Grail, I had long treasured Dr. Rudolf Steiner's teaching about the Pieta . In beholding this remarkable work of art, he indicated that we would find the most true teachings of the Holy Grail.

The Divine Feminine is the Moon Mother who holds the sacred space, or chalice in her soul. It is this holding of inner space that allows for suffering to find its redemption and transformation.  The Pieta is depicting a most sacred, archetypal drama between the Moon Mother and the Son/Sun, or Christ Being. Ultimately, the Gift of the Grail is human speech, or the creative force of the Word as a new healing power in the soul. I was struck by how very real this spiritual drama was in the life of Donna and her son Michael.

As we walked around Donna's home she shared even more about Michael. Having been caught in an interior world and unable to reach out, he is now a champion athlete who takes many thrilling excursions into the wilderness. Artistic works pour out of his hands, and in fact, Michael's handiwork filled the home. He helped remodel his parents home in Colfax, using hand-hewn wood that he milled himself. From the large wooden beams that supported the entire structure of the house, to the kitchen cabinets and tables, stained glass pieces, etched glass in the kitchen cabinets, paintings on the walls, and smaller pieces of art such as hand-crafted wood vases with carefully inlaid pieces, and a stone house for healing that Michael built for his mother—all were astonishing examples of his enormous and expressive outpouring of soul.

It is typical for Donna to work in tandem with parents and their children.  This gives the opportunity for one of the participants to rest in the stone house, listening to the healing sounds of water and birds, while the other is experiencing the artistic session.

Indeed, it was clear that the circle of healing had grown into another spiral. Donna had devoted precious years holding a “womb-space” for Michael when he needed extraordinary healing. These powerful years led to her own healing work. And now it is Michael who is helping to building the “womb-space” for Donna's current healing work!