Nonverbal/Beyond-the-verbal Testimonios: Healing Beyond the Written Word & Oral Storytelling Among Survivors of Colonial and State Violence
Abstract
Oral history and testimonies are essential in historical processes for truth and justice. Yet sometimes the memories are so overwhelming that we need to slow down the storytelling process through nonverbal or beyond-the-verbal expressive practices. This article proposes the framework Nonverbal/Beyond-the-verbal Testimonios (NV/BVT) which offers a kaleidoscope of trauma-informed & healing-centered art-based approaches for personal and collective healing.
Grounded in a desire and commitment to return to ancestral and cultural healing practices, the author showcases a series of artistic processes she has used in her healing praxis and in work with survivors of colonial and state violence. Due to colonization, the written word is viewed as the only legitimate form of knowledge production; if knowledge is not published or institutionalized, it can be treated as insignificant and unworthy of inclusion in academic/learning materials. However, this presentation will remind us that ancestral and cultural practices are also sources of knowledge production. The presenter will discuss the healing that can occur through sewing/embroidery, pottery, and other creative practices.
Nonverbal and multisensorial healing allows survivors to process their emotions, release their pain, and express their vision without speaking a word. Nonverbal and multisensorial expressive and healing practices are centered not on the ability to speak, but on the ability to feel and create. Beyond-the-verbal forms of expression matter because sometimes the pain that survivors carry is too heavy to be described orally. Imagination and creativity are medicine; thus, NV/BVT proposes a multisensorial approach to addressing our historical, intergenerational, and collective wounds.
Art-based Methods / Body Mapping / Embroideries / Nonverbal/Beyond-the-verbal Testimonios / Nonverbal Healing / Multisensorial Healing / Letter Writing / Poetry
In Progress © Joanna Beltrán Girón 2026
