Waltraud Reiner conceived the idea of Hats for Happiness during her years as a milliner, as well as travelling widely to teach hat making.
During the 1990s, a period of adversity struck Waltraud and her family: her husband had an accident which left him with paraplegia, her sister-in-law was fatally struck by a car when trying to rescue a turtle from the road, and Waltraud herself had to learn to overcome her own depression and an eating disorder.
Waltraud translated all this pain into making and using metaphors around hats. After her husband’s accident, he started talking about suicide, at which time her own depression was at its highest; she found solace and respite in art. That time led her to drop the need for her peers’ approval or judge the right way to teach stitching skills. Waltraud’s right way to make was to express the heart, and she coined the saying ‘Hat and art are in the HeArT’.
Hats for happiness was born.
About one in four people worldwide suffer some mental illness during their lifetime. Many suffer in silence, lacking the words or means to express their pain or make sense of it. Through active creativity and reaching out to make connections with others, Waltraud found she could break through silent layers to find new ways where none was initially apparent. People may not know what to do, but they do NOT need to do it ALONE.
She holds now a MA in Gestalt Psychotherapy and has decades of experience in art therapy. She is in private practice and works from a purpose build space in her garden.