Created with collage, gouache, ink, marker, coloured pencils, and watercolour, this mixed-media painting explores authority, judgment, and self-doubt, followed by an act of refusal. Grounded in Judith Herman’s theory of trauma recovery, the work allows stages of healing to coexist, reflecting the non-linear nature of recovery through overlapping layers.

The figure of Paul R. Pintrich appears as a symbol of academic authority and internalised judgment. The statement “I didn’t believe him” becomes an act of resistance, the painting does not merely address trauma. It actively enacts recovery through visual defiance and reconstruction marking a reclaiming of agency and the rejection of imposed narratives of inadequacy.