Model of therapy
Granite Palombo-Amit is a trained Adlerian and Expressive Psychotherapist who developed a therapeutic model that integrates art and therapy. She collaborates with her clients, creating together art installations and performances, providing an avenue for expression and a safe space to articulate, debate and discuss - via the arts - issues of youth poverty, trauma, the prison industrial complex, and violence towards women.
These collaborations aim to modify and support one’s transformation and feelings of insignificance, to trigger healing and growth by altering early-formed emotional schemas (systems of belief) of self-worth and sense of belonging to the world.
These projects were mounted and performed at ARC Gallery, The Hamlin Theater, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the Logan Center at the University of Chicago.
Whispered Gravity - 2025
Print on sheer fabric stretched onto a metal structure.
4’ x 4’ x 8’
The story of an asylum seeker, in her own poetic words.
The piece explores the role of art in the face of global crisis. It's an opportunity to be relevant, inspiring. Shedding light on our interconnectedness, how in each one of us there is a fraction of the other, and therefore how we may have the privilege of witnessing and influencing each other’s faith.
My son speaks his own language
Full of emotion, humor, intonations and gestures
We knew we had no choice but to escape
When my husband threatened to kill us
Sending his police officer friends after us
The whole way in the dark and the stench
Holding tight my son I felt his heart beats
He whispered comforting stories in my ear
And when the Nuns admitted us in the shelter
Like lionesses they arranged legal support for us and gentleness
All the while my son is telling our story
Precisely in his own language
Giving gravity to our transparent yet seen story
Therefore it cannot be unseen
Cannot be unfelt
Cannot be untouched
Fractured Yet Rising - 2014
Fractured Yet Rising is a project that gives a stage to the various types of violence that women are exposed to. As part of the project, I instructed ARC Gallery members in how to work with women in a domestic violence shelter while integrating the arts, and together we created collaborative works that were displayed in the gallery. We collected the women’s stories and wrote them throughout the gallery, in the different languages in which the stories were told to us.
The exhibition had wide exposure. Many of the art pieces were integrative and prompted a dialogue. Many parents brought their children to the show, exposing them to a the phenomenon from an early age. CAN TV documented a panel discussion that was powerful and touching.
Photos by Inbal Amit-Palombo
Recurrent Dreams - 2011-2012
A collaboration between Granite Palombo-Amit, and youth struggling with issues of absent or incarcerated parents and semi-homelessness to homelessness; processing their experiences using street art. As these youth embraced their identities, histories, and their narratives, they underwent a powerful transformation into young, talented artists. The participants created pieces printed on lenticular lenses at ARC Gallery 2011. In 2012, Palombo guided and directed the participants and co-created with them a dance theater performance at The Hamlin Theater, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the Logan Center at the University of Chicago.
The performance included break-dancing, popping and locking, footwork, spoken word, recorded and live sound and music, projections of animations, and projections of real-time interactive animation reflecting the movement of the dancers.
Photos by Inbal Amit-Palombo
Work with the previously Incarcerated
Granite Palombo-Amit worked with previously incarcerated clients, in groups and individually, integrating the arts. The images above, based on photos taken by Nancy Bechtol, illustrate the therapeutic process and its different stages.
Work with Domestic Violence Survivors
For 5 years Granite Palombo-Amit worked with women and children in a domestic violence shelter. She developed a therapeutic program, Conjunction of Therapy with Art (CTA); a uniquely designed, integrative program of therapeutic interventions and artistic expression with residents of a domestic violence shelter funded by the Polk Foundation; organized a yearly art exhibit of the mothers’ and children’s work at a professional art gallery:
Love Has a Metallic Taste, ARC Gallery, Chicago, October 2005.
A multi-media exhibit of animated poetry by children and women residents of a domestic violence shelter, documenting the psychological shifts from being a victim into self-advocator and communicator of the phenomena of domestic violence.
Hair-Do, ARC Gallery, Chicago, 2004.
Survivors of domestic violence wove six-foot body-sculptures of their own hair and extension hair, inviting the visitor to enter into metaphorically dialectical space of domination and powerlessness.
The Dog Whose Name Was Donkey and Thought of Himself as a Lion, ARC Gallery, 2003.
Children, residents of a shelter domestic violence shelter, wrote and illustrated poems and stories, documenting the changing dynamics and roles within their family constellation.
Early Recollections, ARC Gallery, Chicago, 2002.
Women Participants in a domestic violence program painted and wrote their early recollections on sheer fabric panels eight feet long. When installed, the translucent images merged, demonstrating the fluidity of inner and outer realities. The project explored the phenomenon of early recollections, which underlie current beliefs, experiences and values, and provide a foundation for change.
Foil, ARC Gallery, Chicago, 2001.
Children and mothers in a domestic violence program made body sculptures of foil with metallic paints making the sculptures seem to be made of hard metals. The project provided parenting classes for mothers and a format of quality time for children with their mothers.