The Artist Behind the Arts Therapist

I make stuff, it feels good!
I am productive, it never really stops, and when it does stop I quickly become unhinged.
Other people's needs and life's demands are a convenient excuse - in reality, the demands of my life feed my art work, my confidence, my joy, my sense of playfulness and my determination to create.  This insight came to me as I drew the image above.
If I had more time I'd have to deal with fear, fear of being shit.  I play with fear always, in my art making, but not for long.  I just get on with the doing usually.  With more time I'd have to sit through more challenging processes, more confronting feelings, survive my own negative feedback and my extreme shyness as an artist.  I now have a space and a new industrial sewing machine - I kissed it when I unloaded it.  My studio isn't set up, but I used it today.  I wonder, does it mean that what I make has to be 'good' now?
These words were hard to write - Artist, Studio.
The biggest gift of my Arts Therapy training was realising that the creative process can be horrifying but absolutely worth it - that meeting of self through art.  I learnt to expect to meet fear and shit along the way, to welcome them and be as kind to them as I am to joy and play and wonder.  This makes me a much better Arts Therapist.
The Artist isn't behind the Arts Therapist, they are walking hand in hand.