Mask-Making

Purpose and goals:

To support clients in exploring the complexities of grief, trauma, and emotional masking through the creation of a personalized mask. Mask-making externalizes internal experiences that may feel too overwhelming or difficult to verbalize. By differentiating between the outer mask (what is shown to the world) and the inner self (what is hidden, unexpressed, or carried privately), clients gain insight into their emotional landscape and create a symbolic narrative of their healing journey.

  • Externalize grief, trauma, and inexpressible emotions safely through symbolic representation.

  • Support Wolfelt’s principle of reconciling grief rather than resolving it—honoring the ongoing, nonlinear nature of mourning.

  • Integrate nonverbal storytelling, helping clients communicate narratives that words cannot hold.

  • Encourage meaning-making, self-awareness, emotional release, and compassionate witnessing of the self.

Theoretical Rationale:

The NEA article Unmasking Trauma: A Look at the Research on Mask-Making in Creative Arts Therapy (Kaimal, 2017) highlights how mask-making:

  • Creates personal narratives that support communication with clinicians and family

  • Gives form and shape to internal experiences, offering clarity and distance

  • Explore the dichotomy of making outwardly while holding deep internal pain–validating the coexistence of strength and vulnerability.

  • Mask-making invites sensory engagement through paint, texture, and mixed media–promoting embodied processing.

Art-Making:

Materials:

  • Cardboard masks

  • Acrylic paint markers/pens, textured/patterned papers, magazine cutouts, stickers, glue, modge podge, scissors and other collage materials (yarn, beads, natural materials, etc.)

  • Use protective covering for surfaces and have cleaning materials handy.

Instruction:

  • Begin by setting a safe, supportive space. Offer normalization. Invite client to set an intention.

Prompt: “Grief and trauma often give rise to feelings we can’t easily explain. Many of us wear a ‘mask of normalcy’ to navigate daily life, even when we’re hurting inside. Today we’ll use mask-making to gently explore the parts of ourselves we show the world—and the parts we hold privately.”

“There is no right way to feel while doing this. Emotions may come up, and you are safe to express whatever emerges.”

Examples of intentions:

  • May I express what feel hidden

  • May I connect with my inner truth

  • May this mask help me understand my grief

  • May I explore my story with compassion

Explore the Outside of the Mask:

Prompt: “Begin with the outside of your mask. How do you present yourself to the world? What do others see? What do you allow yourself to show?”

Encourage:

  • Colors or symbols representing the outer self

  • Elements of strength, protection, or composure

  • Elements of numbness or disconnect if applicable

Explore the Inside of the Mask:

Prompt: “Now, paint or decorate the inside. What lives behind the mask?

What emotions, memories, vulnerabilities, or truths are held inside?”

Consider:

  • Textures and symbolic imagery representing emotional complexity

  • Torn paper for fragmentation

  • Colors and imagery representing grief waves

Give time check-ins: halfway, 5 mins left, 1-min warning before closing art-making phase

Narrative:

  • Invite client to either journal from the mask’s perspective or speak as if they are the mask.

  • Reflect individually or as a group to share whatever feels safe, otherwise they can continue to write.

  • Provide options to display mask, keep it, or symbolically transform it (by adding elements in future).

  • Releasing or destroying the mask might only be appropriate if the client is emotionally safe.

Reflection Questions/Prompts:

  • What does the outside of your mask say about how you move through the world?

  • What parts of yourself do you tend to protect or hide?

  • How does your mask reflect the grief/trauma you’ve been carrying?

  • What feels too hard to say with words but felt easier to express on your mask?

  • Did any symbols, colors, or materials feel especially powerful or meaningful?

  • How do you feel looking at both sides of your mask?

  • What would it mean to keep, transform, or release this mask?

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