Years ago I was supporting an art-based community project that brought together many artists and young community members, in a beautiful and complicated venture of co-creation. At my first meeting with the lead artist-facilitator, we went through the usual chat, project outline, getting-to-know-you process — then somehow, across our small table, an intimacy grew that drew us into a deeper kind of connection. Out spilled the artist’s tightly held story of trauma; a deep and lasting terror, a life-and-near-death encounter that, although it ended with life, leaves them shaken, tearful, all these years later.