Each book and artwork created in this project is unique. It contains heartfelt insights into the encounters between its maker and SECASA and/or MonashHealth. Nonetheless themes emerged and connected one maker with another.
Palpable amongst those themes is the hurt both organisations and many individuals within them intentionally caused and choose to continue to cause. Another is the decision they made time and time again in refusing to engage in meaningful conversation or enquiry. That this was emerging from an organisation set up to support people affected by trauma made their behaviours even more astonishing, heartbreaking and inexplicable.
You can access the full article here. After the Rupture
Anne Riggs PhD. Art for Soothing & Strengthening.
ABSTRACT
This paper is about an arts project, The Forgotten People, undertaken in the first half of 2022 with a group of former clients and staff of a Melbourne sexual assault service which underwent an aggressive structural and cultural change that had profound negative effects on both.
Whilst the service, and its parent, a major Melbourne public hospital, refused to engage in any form of respectful conversation addressing the pain their Carelessness was causing, a creative community formed to express their feelings in art. Our aim was to create together, to initiate ‘soul repair’, to communicate with the health providers, and for the project to be of service in other organisations where client needs can easily be overlooked.
It is a paper about the transformation of those involved from feeling isolated and intimidated by their experiences with the service and hospital, to feeling part of a collective of people doing something positive and uplifting as an act of Care.
Decision makers showed themselves to be incapable of acknowledging the suffering they were knowingly imposing on clients and staff.
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Anne Riggs 
Dr Anne Riggs is a very passionate Artist, healer and wonderful therapist. Even a casual conversation with her gets people closer to their insights, guts and hunches. Her approach is associated with building perseverance in people. She works with an attitude of’ ‘not pushing ‘ yet some caring nudges and compassionate glances make that difference and people begin their way to hopeful living. Venkat Rao Pulla, PhD, Academic, James Cook University, and Foundation Professor Strengths Based Practice, Brisbane Institute of Strengths Based Practice.
Thank you for your thoughtful response Venkat and for your long-time support of me and my work. I am so grateful to the support you gave me when I was finishing my PhD and beyond. So much of my work – and this article – has a path back to your Institute of Strengths Based Practice, its philosophy, the conferences, and you.