My Journey
“Not all those who wander are lost.” (Tolkien)
Hi! I’m Elisa, I’m Italian, and I have been living in Galicia for five years. I arrived here walking, like a lot of us.
In my life I’ve always been an explorer: always searching. Searching for a home, a purpose, a God. Searching for the beauty in all the things in the world.
The first step in my journey was through art: I always loved art, it always moved my heart in a very special way. The first time I went to an art museum I was eight years old; it was the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milano. I have never stopped being moved by art since then.
Eventually, I discovered theatre: that was my first deep love. The stage. The sipario. The light. The smell of the wooden floor. The emotions going back and forth between actors and spectators. The powerful words that went out from an actor’s soul to reach our soul. I definitely wanted to know more, to explore there. There was, of course, a lot to explore. It was perfect for the start of my searching journey.
I studied theatre at the university in Milan, a lot of theory. I wanted to explore more. So I enrolled in the theatre academy Arsenale in Milano, and I became an actress. I loved the stage. I loved to embody beautiful characters and give them freedom and voice.
I started to work at the Teatro Stabile in Verona, where I was doing assistance in direction and assistance in teaching drama to kids and teenagers. And there, I saw it: I saw something that I had only grasped in the past—the amazing healing power of art. The amazing healing power of theatre, of creating, of performing.
Of course, I had experienced it on myself, but in that experience I could see it in action.
I wanted to know more. I explored, and I discovered that drama therapy already existed. Eventually, that was what I wanted to become: a dramatherapist, putting together the love for theatre and art with the healing part of me.
I studied at the Scuola di Artiterapie La Linea dell’Arco in Lecco, a lakeside city in the north of Italy.
I worked with dramatherapy for a long time. I worked in hospitals, schools, day homes, centres, and associations. I worked for many years with different kinds of humans: sharing, creating, healing. It was beautiful to see what art can do to people.
I searched more: I studied shadow theatre, puppetry, Theatre of the Oppressed, and I joined a playback theatre company. It is so wide, I couldn’t stop learning new things and new tools for theatre and drama therapy.
On the side of this artistic journey, I started to walk. In 2011, at the end of my university years, I did my first Camino de Santiago. I started the trip thinking that I was going on a small journey. I didn’t know that I was encountering something that would completely change my life. Something that eventually led me to finding God, to living in Spain, to embarking on beautiful adventures. I have never stopped walking; in the last fifteen years I have walked many Caminos. The most meaningful one was in 2019, when I walked from Desenzano del Garda, in the north of Italy, to Finisterre. That was amazing. That changed my life.
As with theatre, of course I couldn’t ignore the transformative and healing power of the Camino de Santiago.
I discovered that I had two hearts: theatre and the Camino de Santiago. And of course, I could join them. I started to propose experiences of walking in nature, dramatherapy in nature, and eventually dramatherapy workshops on the Camino. It fills me with joy to share all this never-ending beauty with other people.
Alongside this, I wanted to integrate a holistic approach to all of it. The theatre that I studied in the academy and that I propose to my groups is very physical. The body can be a great teacher for us; sometimes it knows things that we still ignore. It gives us many messages. Again, I was curious. I wanted to explore.
So I started to study Ayurvedic massage and medicine at the A.I.M.A. Scuola di Ayurveda in Milano. After that, I opened a small Ayurveda studio in Desenzano del Garda.
I travelled a lot, I searched for God, and I found Him. That was the last piece.
I got baptized this year, in the Atlantic Ocean, with a beautiful ceremony. During all this journey, I was searching also for a spiritual meaning, I was searching for God, I was searching for answers. Now I found God around me and within me, and this precious found gives me clarity, balance, peace and acceptance. I integrate what I discovered in my spiritual journey in my job.
Now I have a bag of tools and I want to share them with you all. Let’s go on adventures together: inside and outside of us.
There is a beautiful world to explore all around.
