{"id":385615,"date":"2026-01-01T23:03:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T23:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/385615\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T23:03:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T23:03:13","slug":"artist-piiij-goodrem-used-honest-self-portraits-and-therapy-to-heal-from-childhood-trauma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/385615\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist Piiij Goodrem used honest self-portraits and therapy to heal from childhood trauma"},"content":{"rendered":"

From a young age, artist Piiij Goodrem preferred to push painful experiences and feelings away from sight rather than confront them.<\/p>\n

“I was brought up in a way that really indicated to me that the best way to deal with something is to sweep it away, not bring it up,” she says.<\/p>\n

“Appearances mattered.”<\/p>\n

Now in her 30s, Piiij wants to speak up.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Orchids wrap around Piiij’s body in her self-portrait, ‘Holding’. (ABC News: Felicity James)<\/p>\n

“I was assaulted quite young and there were several instances throughout my teen years,” she says.<\/p>\n

“I wasn’t heard or supported in the ways that I needed to be, which meant that I just bottled everything up and I didn’t talk about anything.”\"A<\/p>\n

‘Holding’ is a self-portrait about holding yourself gently and accountable. (ABC News: Felicity James)<\/p>\n

After encouragement from her sister, Piiij sought help from a psychologist in her 20s.<\/p>\n

She credits therapy with helping her open up, but finding the right person was initially emotionally and financially draining.<\/p>\n

“It just felt very hard and scary and wrong,” she says.<\/p>\n

“I would be full-blown sobbing, a convulsing body cry, if I tried to talk about anything when I first started.”<\/p>\n

Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n

Ultimately, it was creating self-portraits that helped Piiij rediscover her body and her boundaries.<\/p>\n

“It was very much a series that was about looking through my history and my trauma and trying to find safety and a home within my body,” she says.<\/p>\n

Piiij said it was an important part of her healing to be honest in the self-portraits.<\/p>\n

“It’s very hyper detailed and I\u2019ve put a lot of stretch marks and cellulite and all this texture within my body in all these images,” she says.<\/p>\n

\"Portrait<\/p>\n

‘Mind your tongue’ and “Umbilical climb’ are among Piiij Goodrem’s self-portraits.<\/p>\n

In one of Piiij’s digital drawings, ‘Holding’, orchids and their roots wrap around her back.<\/p>\n

“It’s like they\u2019re growing out of my back like wings,” she says.<\/p>\n

“It was about learning to hold myself gently and be kind, because I\u2019m really bad at that.”<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

‘Grounded’ is another self-portrait about growth and healing after trauma. (ABC News: Felicity James)<\/p>\n

This intense focus on art, inspired by the natural world of tropical Darwin, also helped Piiij overcome a dependence on alcohol.<\/p>\n

“[I was] a full-blown alcoholic, couple of bottles of wine a night, any night of the week, let alone if I was being social and then it was even more,” Piiij says.<\/p>\n

“It was just really about avoiding all of the noise in my head and to just hold it together and be normal.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Piiij Goodrem creates art in her home studio in Darwin. (ABC News: Felicity James)<\/p>\n

Now after being sober for four years, Piiij reflects on how “getting lost” while working on a painting for a few hours helped her process uncomfortable thoughts.<\/p>\n

If you or someone you know needs help:<\/p>\n

“I’d realise that I hadn\u2019t been thinking about drinking,” she says.<\/p>\n

“The most valuable thing for me has been making art and having an outlet that brings light instead of pulling me back into the darkness.”<\/p>\n

People who experience trauma during their childhood can feel isolated and unable to share their experiences, which can harm recovery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Piiij Goodrem’s art includes earrings and magnets inspired by her garden. (ABC News: Felicity James)<\/p>\n

For a long time Piiij \u2014 and those around her \u2014 feared she would not make it to her 30s.<\/p>\n

“Maybe only about three or four years ago, I hit the point where I was like: ‘Actually I think I do want to live’,” she says.<\/p>\n

“I do want to give it a real hot shot and not just be existing, I would like to hit a point where I’m thriving.”\"A<\/p>\n

Piiij Goodrem says friends encouraged her to pursue selling her art. (ABC News: Felicity James)<\/p>\n

She has now turned her artistic escape into a side business.<\/p>\n

“Find something that’s constructive, that is nourishing and gives you that dopamine and feeling of contentment but isn’t leading to any kind of self-destruction,” Piiij says.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Piiij Goodrem has been creating art, earrings and printed clothing for local markets. (ABC News: Felicity James)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From a young age, artist Piiij Goodrem preferred to push painful experiences and feelings away from sight rather…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[207034,91060,64,63,207036,10355,101045,207033,207035,134,514,207037,207031,36104,207032,29595,518],"class_list":["post-385615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-alcohol-addiction","tag-art-therapy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-caladiums","tag-child-sexual-abuse","tag-childhood-trauma","tag-darwin-artist","tag-digital-art","tag-entertainment","tag-mental-health","tag-piij-creations","tag-piij-goodrem","tag-ptsd","tag-self-portraits","tag-substance-abuse","tag-trauma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}