Womb Scripts

If Your Vulva Could Speak, What Would She Say? Healing from Sexual Violence using Art Therapy

This artwork was exhibited at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Trauma Resilience Centre, Bangalore and the School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan, among others.

Sexual abuse often also involves verbal abuse, shame, denial and silencing of the pain.

The word cunt, much like bitch, carries a history steeped in gender-based violence and derogation. Yet, within the therapy room, reclaiming such words and forms becomes part of the healing itself.

In this artwork, we see a series of “vulva-objects” arranged in a ritualistic formation. These are fabric vulvas carefully crafted from patterned textiles collected across the different landscapes of a sexual assault survivor’s life. Some of these are created by Neha, to signify her own journey as a survivor, some by clients at her clinical supervision sites of practice, and others in therapy with Neha over 4-5 years.

Beads, cotton, and other tactile materials are stitched into these vulvas, transforming these forms into objects that can act as attachment-bridges between survivors of sexual violence and their therapists.

How can Art Therapy help navigate harm caused from sexual violence trauma?

A sex therapist is trained to help survivors re-wire unhelpful associations with their bodies, release shame, and reorient their relationships to their body and specifically, to their genitals, or their partner’s genitals, to which a survivor of abuse might experience internal, psychosomatic blocks.

Sometimes, the process of creating objects in the presence of a trained psychotherapist helps us process some of the pain we may have experienced from the physical, spiritual and psychological harm done to our bodies.

These art forms then serve not only as symbols of one’s long journey of survival after traumatic sexual assault, childhood sexual abuse, incest and so on, but also as catalysts for guiding survivors into a transformative therapeutic journey. The objects can also assist in sex education, centering female pleasure, making it easier to talk about things that have been silence from social shame around them for generations together.

The original vision for this project was conceived by Art Therapist & colleague, Jordan Ferranto, who sought to reclaim these words through art therapy, transforming them into a site of agency, connection, and renewal.

Process Note:

“As an artist who enjoys working with metaphor, these objects have been powerful to create with clients.”

Stitching, shaping, holding, even playing with them provides channels of therapeutic relief when utilized by a trained art therapist in the trauma-informed art therapy room.

These objects invite intimacy and curiosity, turning fabric, beads, and cotton into embodied companions for survivors of sexual violence.

They are tactile, playful, and grounding, and can also serve as tools in sex education, making it easier to talk about pleasure, boundaries, and bodies, especially the parts of ourselves that carry layers of social shame.

With sexual awareness becoming increasingly restrictive across the world, this project feels urgent: to reclaim language, reclaim space, and insist on showing up louder for human rights, sexuality, and pleasure as essential, universal acts.