Scroll for link to full interview.
Following a burst of inspiration, Sarah Pleydell walked through the front doors of Christ House three years ago. She was upset with the alienation that she witnessed unhoused people experiencing and decided to volunteer her skills in what she knew best – the creative arts.
Drawing on her career of teaching, writing and the performing arts, Sarah shares the healing power of self-expression and creativity with patients at Christ House. In her words: “I wanted to find an area where there was more freedom- and people would immediately experience freedom and confidence and openness…”
In Sarah’s personal life and in her experiences with teaching at Christ House, she’s discovered the link between the physical body and art. “I know that art releases emotion and it transforms emotion. I’ve done collage work in some hospitals… where making collages is a very important piece of not just accessing our own inner healing capacity, but letting it rearrange our inner lives. Because if you give yourself space, it brings out the pain – the emotional pain, which is also physical pain. They’re very connected. It sort of brings to the surface where physical pain meets emotional pain. And then in the making, you are reorganizing, reshaping what may be kind of random and chaotic. You’re giving it form and composition and beauty. And that is very healing.”
In this interview, Sarah also delves into how volunteering has shaped her perspectives: “The depth of wisdom and experience that I have encountered here has been life changing… we think in a horrible way, unconsciously, in our society. We stratify, we create caste, and we do it just without thinking about it.”
To enjoy the full interview with Sarah, click here.
Watch our two documentaries: “One Day, One Way”, created by patients at Christ House and “In God’s Time” created by Kairos Members. Thank you to Sarah for believing in this idea and for her integral part in this project. 
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