9 minute read
ART AND CHILD’S PLAY SERIOUS TOOLS FOR HEALING
All too often children’s spontaneous play and art making do not get the full respect they should receive. This is true in developed and un-developed countries alike. So, it is commendable that article 31 was included in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and that it highlights both art and play. Article 31 states, “That every child has the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts”. But, few really understand why this right is so important to the physical, and mental health and wellness of the child. And, few understand how powerful the use of the arts and play are in the healing process.
I am the Founder of The ArtReach Foundation® (ArtReach), whose mission is to use expressive and creative arts therapies to influence and assist the growth and development of children who have experienced the traumatic effects of war, violence and/or natural disaster. In 1999, not long after the end of the Bosnian war, we launched the ArtReach pilot program in Sarajevo. Our first five years were spent in Bosnia and Herzegovina where we conducted training programs for over 500 professionals from the fields of education, social work, and counseling, all of who worked with children. Since that time, we have taken this culturally adaptable program that uses creative and expressive arts activities to train several thousand more professionals in countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, the U.S., and now Haiti.
The work of ArtReach is based on the assumption that creative, artistic, imaginative, and self-expressive activities are emotionally healing and promote positive growth and development in children. This assumption is grounded in concepts and observations of psychologists, educators, and specialists in human development. Creative and healing imagery has been incorporated to treat eating disorders, trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder for years (Sheikh, 2003), and, much has been written about the psychological impact of natural and human-caused disasters. Creative art (art, drama, music) therapies and group therapies have been used to treat psychological trauma for decades (Johnson, 1987). All of this led to the development of our program.
Art making is natural to all people and exists across all cultures and languages. It is an effective vehicle by which children express themselves. It is also a safe way for people who have experienced the unspeakable to be able to come to terms with their suffering, as well as a pleasurable way to experience the process of self-exploration. (Kramer, 1993)
The expressions of the imagination are elements interwoven within all ArtReach training programs. Our creative, arts-integrated approach is called the ArtReach Model®. It encourages and supports resilience, creativity and community support for children, whether traumatically affected or not. This Model, formulated by Bernhard Kempler, Ph.D., ABPP (2003), and ArtReach’s expressive arts therapists, tailors the training to match the culture, conditions, level of education, and resources available to participants in their environment.
ArtReach programs combine visual art, music, drama, meditation, creative writing and movement activities into an experiential workshop format for 15-20 participants. The training period is two weeks. During the first week, the adults are immersed in the ArtReach experience, and then in the second week these participants try out their new tools with children under the watchful guidance and supervision of the ArtReach professionals. To the surprise of first-time participants, an ArtReach workshop can seem quite simple at first. However, very quickly the participants begin to realize that this workshop will be different from any other they have previously had in their training background.
At the beginning of the first day of the program the workshop facilitator initiates a dynamic group process with a carefully orchestrated series of introductory exercises that include movement and music. A guided meditation may be the next activity to follow, promoting relaxation and the opportunity for mental images to come into focus, and begin to inspire an artwork, a dance, a posture called a “sculpt,” a song, or a poem to be developed during the ensuing workshop days. This organic environment, created by continually changing and blending one metaphorical activity into another seamlessly, continues to build group engagement and active imaginations. This method of immersion allows each participant to connect to their creative self, one filled with expressive potential and a sense of hope. After the training, and under ArtReach supervision, the participants return to their work settings with children, communities and families, and apply what they have learned through the process.
In our follow-up interviews, participants report how they feel more confident about introducing art activities into their settings. They also often begin to create arts-related activities
within their own curriculums that touch directly upon community issues that plague the children with whom they work. Additionally, consistent feedback has shown us that, if the participants themselves had also been affected by trauma, the ArtReach training helped them personally in the same ways as the children and families that they serve.
After a recent two-week training program for forty educators, healthcare and social workers in the community of Merger, Croix des Bouquets, Haiti, a participant was so inspired by his ArtReach experience that he spent post-workshop evening hours creating an artwork from crude local materials. This young man did not believe himself to be an artist, nor had he ever considered doing anything quite like this to express his feelings. He told us that, from his workshop experience, he imagined that “if there was an ArtReach Center here… it would help many people who are hurting in their spirits or people who have lost their way.”
Today, health and wellness centers, clinics and hospitals around the world are incorporating the expressive arts into a child’s (and adult’s) recovery from injury and illness of all sorts. I am sure small miracles are seen regularly by the professionals who work with these children. During our five years of programs in Bosnia, I was moved to tears as I witnessed a 9-year-old girl begin to speak for the first time as she slowly entered into an art activity with other children. A family member told her teachers that she had experienced a horrific incident during the war, and had not spoken since. For five years she remained silent, becoming known as a selective mute. Selective mutism, known to be an anxiety disorder, can render some children silent even when their silence causes them shame, social ostracism or brings on punishment. In an ArtReach workshop this young girl found her voice again.
One of the important components of ArtReach training is in teaching how to create a “Safe Space” - an environment where children can feel secure and open to expressing themselves in free play. By using the arts to give form to feelings, free play of children’s imagination can make meaning of the world around them. Children can be drawn into a rich internal world just by being given a tablet of paper and crayons. That world is enhanced through encouragement to explore feelings that can promote positive development, as well as a positive self-esteem. ArtReach programs stress the importance of creating this kind of supportive and sensitive surrounding. The use of metaphorical activities within this safe space can promote a gentle release of feelings that may be acknowledged and reflected within free play patterns. Children’s “like me” identification with others begins to help them build an empathetic connection that ultimately plays a vital role in a foundation for their recovery.
It is well-accepted that, with proper treatment, the human body can heal itself from many physical wounds. Might it not also be possible that proper support and encouragement could awaken an innate capacity to heal from psychological trauma as well? Anecdotal evidence from ArtReach programs in multiple cultures over the last fifteen years strongly support an answer in the affirmative. Consequently, ArtReach has endeavored to find ways to expand the impact of its programs to the larger community beyond those who participate directly in them by incorporating a Train-the-Trainer model to develop indigenous ArtReach trainers.
ArtReach activities can be an addition to the standard educational curriculum, and can also be integrated into specific subject matter in that curriculum. During our workshops, I have personally witnessed how the program generates an excitement and growing awareness in how to use the arts as tools to help cope with, and often mitigate, the effects of trauma in children with whom the participants work. For example, I observed two ArtReach-trained fifth grade teachers in Bosnia successfully enrich their presentation of such subjects as social studies and conflict resolution through the experiential use of art and drma. This class had several children displaced within their own
country and often scapegoated by their classmates and thought of as outsiders. By using the ArtReach approach in teaching the subject matter, the teachers were able to build empathy among the students and transform the classroom environment
Though there is little literature that exists on the curative powers of the imagination, there is evidence that allowing refugees and displaced persons to talk about the future, rather than continually focus on healing the past, decreases depressive symptoms (Beiser & Hyman, 1997). It is a small step to take in connecting the idea of thinking of the future to imagining and creating hope.
For those who doubt that which cannot be proven in a scientific laboratory, I would offer some of our observations and anecdotes that show how programs like ArtReach can benefit children, adults and communities whether they have suffered trauma or not. It is wonderful when there are compassionate adults to encourage and allow for children’s dreams to be accessed through art experiences.
One of ArtReach’s Middle East trainers told me about her experiences as a young girl who came to Jordan as a refugee. She still carries the pain of displacement and loss though it happened many years ago. Now, as a social worker, she leads programs at a UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency) community center that serves women and children in Zarqa. When we met one year after her training, she was very animated and quite eager to report how she was using what she had learned from our workshops, both in her work and also with her family. She said ArtReach made her feel free and helped her to dream again - something she had not done for a very long time. The metaphor she used to describe herself was one of a butterfly that had finally emerged from its dark cocoon, spread its wings and could suddenly fly. On her desk sits a little butterfly figurine that she uses everyday to remind her of who she has become, and the new role she plays with the refugee children who come to the center. She says she now knows how to help them feel free and become beautiful butterflies themselves. l
References: Beiser, M., & Human, I. (1997) Refugee’s time perspective and mental health. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 996-1002. Johnson, D.R. (1987). The role of the creative arts therapies in the diagnosis and treatment of psychological trauma. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 14, 7-13. Kempler, B. (2007). Unpublished ArtReach document. Kramer, E. (1993). Art as therapy with children. (2nd Ed.) Sheikh, A. A. (2003), Healing Images: The role of imagination in health.
