Jess Aranda

Artist Statement

As a psychotherapist and spiritual seeker, I am deeply invested in inner work and processes of psychological transformation. While my practice does not typically center self-portraiture or grief, this photographic series emerged during a specific period of personal grief work in my own therapy.

Having been on both sides of the therapeutic relationship (as a therapist and as a client), I feel an intimate familiarity with the therapy process as a space of holding, witnessing, and feeling deeply. Working intuitively, I used the therapy couch and my own body to stay in contact with grief as it was lived in the moment.