Threads of Comfort: Embroidery and Emotional Care
- Jul 13
- 7 min read
Across centuries and continents, the art of Embroidery has offered far more than decorative value. Embroidery invites us to slow down. It provides order in moments of chaos, rhythm in the absence of routine, and expression where words may fail. Beneath colorful threads and beautiful stitch patterns lies a quiet, structured language of emotional care, both for embroiderers themselves and others!
As a textile expert and designer who has spent decades immersed in the material intelligence of fiber arts, I have seen how the act of stitching can quiet the overtaxed mind, stabilize the nervous system, and create patterns of mental resilience. The profound relationship between embroidery and emotional wellness emphasizes the soothing, repetitive nature of handwork, and helps build an architecture of emotional care. Stitching supports mental health, emotional regulation, and sensory integration… tiny thread by tiny thread.
A Historical Language of Comfort and Contemplation
Embroidery’s therapeutic power is no new discovery, but a long-held tradition rooted in comfort, ritual, and emotional restoration. In medieval European convents, embroidery was used as a spiritual and emotional discipline, offering cloistered nuns a sense of agency and focus. The act of working thread into cloth was a devotional gesture… quiet but deliberate, contemplative but tactile. In many West African communities, hand-stitched textile traditions such as Yoruba appliqué not only signify status and spirituality but also serve as intergenerational conduits of healing, memory, and identity. These textile arts were often created and shared during rites of passage or periods of mourning and transition (Picton & Mack, 1989). In Japanese culture, the mending technique of sashiko was originally developed by rural women to reinforce garments and has long embodied both functionality and mindfulness. “Sashiko owes its unique appearance to each uniform stitch representing care, endurance, and meditative rhythms linked to Zen philosophy “(Tanaka, 2010). Indigenous societies, known for their stunning and highly intricate textured embroideries, used community stitching as an emotional centerpoint; “among many Indigenous North American tribes—including the Lakota and Ojibwe—hand embroidery using quills, beads, and thread is deeply spiritual. These tactile arts were often practiced communally, honoring ancestors, recording personal and tribal narratives, and offering prayers through the act of making” (Gunn Allen, 1986).
During the First and Second World Wars, embroidery and other hand-stitching activities were introduced to injured soldiers as part of structured hospital care. The Red Cross promoted embroidery for its calming, productive qualities, offering both distraction and dignity to convalescing veterans (Hunt, 2014). Emotional regulation through stitching has not only been of solace to female populations: psychiatric hospitals in the early 20th century often encouraged patients (especially men with wartime trauma) to engage in embroidery as a form of occupational therapy. In these cases, the needle was not necessarily a token of femininity but a neutral tool of recovery and agency, used to reestablish motor skills, attention, and narrative control (Corkhill et al., 2014).
Repetition, Rhythm, and Neurophysiology
The physiological basis for embroidery’s emotional benefits lies in the brain-body relationship. The act of stitching - repetitive, bilateral, and rhythmic - helps stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, a branch of the autonomic system responsible for “rest and digest” functions. This stimulation may lower cortisol levels, slow the heart rate, and activate the body’s natural repair systems. In other words, embroidery invites our body to take a big exhale!
These ideas are supported by research in occupational and art therapy: repetitive, goal-directed activities help regulate the nervous system by providing structure, predictability, and sensory feedback (Levine-Madori, 2009). Stitching may engage the brain’s reward systems, influencing serotonin and dopamine pathways, which are associated with pleasure and mood stabilization.
Dr. Perri Klass notes that handwork activates multiple brain regions at once—visual-spatial, motor, and memory centers—offering both cognitive stimulation and emotional regulation (Klass, 2020). Some clinicians and writers have drawn informal parallels between the bilateral, rhythmic motions of embroidery and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy’s use of side-to-side stimulation; these trauma therapies use side-to-side eye movement to help reprocess distressing memories (Van der Kolk, 2014). Though not identical, the soothing effect of crossing the midline in handwork may offer a similar grounding function for individuals with anxiety or trauma histories.
Emotional Regulation through Process
Beyond neurological regulation, embroidery creates emotional structure through what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi described as flow: a state of complete absorption in a task. When one is in flow, time dilates, and self-consciousness recedes. For those coping with stress, loss, or trauma, this immersion offers respite from rumination and anxious thought loops. How many times have we reached for stitching projects in times of anxiety and loss, almost automatically?
In 2016, researchers at the University of Otago found that engaging in daily creative activities, including embroidery and textile work, had a positive impact on emotional well-being the following day (Conner et al., 2016). Participants reported feeling more “energized, enthusiastic, and flourishing”… evidence that creativity, when practiced with consistency, can promote cumulative emotional benefits. For those managing chronic mental health conditions such as depression, PTSD, or anxiety, embroidery might offer a subtle form of emotional containment. The cloth becomes a place of engagement, and the thread a boundary: it gives shape to feeling without the demand for verbal expression. The tactility of thread and fabric, the sound of scissors or the snip of floss, providing a multi-sensory anchor to the present moment, in line with central tenets of mindfulness-based stress reduction (Kabat-Zinn, 2013).
Social Embroidery as Collective Care
While embroidery is often thought of as a solitary pursuit, its therapeutic capacity is amplified in community contexts. Group stitching sessions, whether in rehabilitation clinics, libraries, or online networks, can help reduce isolation and build emotional resilience through shared experience. Sitting side-by-side and stitching with a friend (even silently!) can sometimes bring us such relief!
The UK’s National Health Service has adopted this principle through its Social Prescribing Initiative, wherein doctors can refer patients to community activities—including art and craft groups—as a complement or alternative to medication for loneliness or mild depression (NHS, 2019) Participants not only benefit from the process of making, but also from the relationships and support systems that form around these shared rituals of care.
This sense of care is echoed in the work of therapeutic textile programs worldwide. In the Australian “Common Threads” initiative, survivors of trauma and abuse gather to embroider affirmations and personal imagery onto garments and shared banners, transforming pain into symbolic healing. Similarly, in the U.S., the “Tiny Pricks Project” uses embroidery as a political and emotional outlet, allowing participants to stitch contemporary commentary in communal resistance.These projects highlight the power of stitch as both medium and metaphor: thread as connective tissue, and cloth as common ground.
Creating Identity and Meaning
From a design perspective, embroidery exemplifies what scholar Matilda McQuaid calls “material intelligence”—the capacity to understand and shape the world through physical making (McQuaid, 2020). In this context, embroidery becomes a tool for building not only objects but a strong sense of self. Historically, embroidery was a means for women and marginalized makers to articulate personal and cultural identity in restrictive social structures. Rozsika Parker, in her seminal text The Subversive Stitch, reframed embroidery as an emotionally charged, often subversive act—one that conveyed domesticity, yes, but also autonomy and narrative control (Parker, 1984). This perspective has influenced generations of contemporary artists and designers who use textile work to explore grief, memory, resilience, and joy.
In our current moment, when so many experience burnout, grief, or overstimulation, the return to handcraft, and particularly embroidery, is not just nostalgia. It is a recalibration! Through simple stitches, we can build spaces of repetition, rhythm, and reflection that soothe the body and give coherence to emotion.
Sometimes, care must be created, stitched, delicately and insistently, by the hands of those who choose to sit still, pick up a needle, and mend. I know some of my most comforting moments have been with my friends and colleagues who share my love of textile creation. I hope you will also find comfort and care in your embroidery!
References
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Conner, Tamlin S., et al. “Creative Activity, Day-to-Day Affect, and Well-Being: A Daily Diary Study.” The Journal of Positive Psychology, vol. 11, no. 3, 2016, pp. 1–9.
Corkhill, Betsan, et al. “The Therapeutic Benefits of Knitting in Adults with Depression.” British Journal of Occupational Therapy, vol. 77, no. 2, 2014, pp. 50–57.
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. Yale University Press, 1979.
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McQuaid, Matilda. Designing Peace: Material Cultures of Care. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2020.
National Health Service (NHS). Social Prescribing and Community-Based Support: Summary Guide. NHS England, 2019. www.england.nhs.uk/publication/social-prescribing-and-community-based-support-summary-guide/.
Parker, Rozsika. The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine. The Women’s Press, 1984.
Peavy, Charles A. “Beadwork and Identity: Native American Women and Cultural Continuity.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal, vol. 34, no. 3, 2010, pp. 55–76.
Picton, John, and John Mack. African Textiles. British Museum Press, 1989.
Tanaka, K. Sashiko: Stitching for Strength and Beauty. Tokyo Craft Press, 2010.
Van der Kolk, Bessel A. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking, 2014.
