Back Again: Vulnerability

After many intense months, I finally have the time to rest and reflect.
Work. Refugee youth are one of the most vulnerable client populations a therapist can work with. This has become more evident to me in the past three months than it has ever been in my five years working with this group.
In the past three months I have:
-Supported four young clients in gaining out of home placements.
-Listened to stories of immense cruelty that have occurred in this country, at this time.
- Supported the language interpreters themselves as they reacted with outrage to the story content.
-Got to know the local authorities pretty well.
-Struggled to find a place in my ever-widening worldview for these stories.

How do we as therapists and caring people process the terrible situations that our clients report to us, particularly when they are still occurring?

I have stumbled my way through this quandary as if I had never done so before. All of my usual coping strategies have been only minimally helpful: supervision, rest, art, mindfulness, time with partner and friends, etc. This time around I found I literally needed regular bodywork, a vacation without phone or email at all, and ultimately to leave one of my work environments that was not taking threats to my personal safety seriously.
I have  incredibly high tolerance for difficult content in client stories; even so, when the worst stories I've ever heard intersect with a greater community that is not able to insure the safety of my very vulnerable clients and myself, I meet my limits. We all have different limits, and most of us won't know what those limits are until we hit them.
I'm sure I'll have more to share as I metabolize this experience further and come to greater understanding. For now, I feel it is important to share this process midway - to reflect with honesty the raw impact this work can have on us as human beings. It's tough and brutal and incredibly moving. I feel simultaneously heartbroken and richer for what I've experienced.

Occupy Art Therapy - blog

I have just started an Occupy Art Therapy blog to complement the facebook page. Check it out at: www.occupyarttherapy.blogspot.com .
www.occupyarttherapy.blogspot.com

Occupy Art Therapy

After getting the juices flowing during a discussion on LinkedIn, I decided to start up a public forum where supporters and practitioners of Art Therapy could meet, brainstorm, and mobilize for the promotion of Art Therapy as a field and a profession. It's called Occupy Art Therapy, and its home is on facebook:  www.facebook.com/OccupyArtTherapy
It originally arose out of frustration with the little that the American Art Therapy Association appears to be doing for Art Therapy. I'm still frustrated with them, but even more excited by the great ideas and positive energy coming out of this new creature. Please feel free to check it out!

Art as Advanced Play

   Art therapy offers people the ability to play.  Play is linked with a sense of safety. We need to feel safe to be creative and spontaneous, and thus to play. I have also found that increasing play can increase a sense of safety: it's like they impact each other. For those whose sense of safety is compromised by trauma, art offers a way to engage playfully with the world that is not as threatening as direct interaction with others.
   I have had many young clients who come from war and are not able to play with peers, make friends, or joke around with adults. They perceive danger everywhere after a lifetime of danger being everywhere. I believe play is a developmental imperative for children, and if play is not possible children don't learn how to think creatively and build relationships with others among many other things. Stephen Porges' work on neuroception, the nervous system's automatic scanning and assessment of danger, is the founding research in the idea that trauma affects our ability to socially engage due to a diminished sense of safety.  Check out: http://stephenporges.com  Porges found that when we perceive danger around us, our ability to engage socially is inhibited at a nervous system level. Many forms of play include engaging socially with others, and as a therapist it is hard to encourage non-social interactions in a therapy session. I have found that an exception to this is art making. Children and adults can play through art making without having to engage directly with another person. This can start the process of feeling safe within play.
   I have also found that it is more tolerable for such clients to have a barrier between us when we do interact, and a clay sculpture or a drawing seems to be an acceptable barrier.  We are able to talk about the sculpture instead of the client. We are able to explore the client's world through a collage rather than talking about his/her thoughts of the world. The focus is on an object the client made rather than the client herself/himself. As most people identify to some extent with art they make, it is an ideal bridge to tolerating direct interaction.

Celebration: South Sudan declares its independence tomorrow!

   The women of southern Sudan were able to vote for the first time in the decision to create a separate nation for their region! Tomorrow, July 9, 2011 South Sudan officially declares its independence. Check out the link below to learn more.

Stand With South Sudanese Women - Women for Women International

   Mental health issues arise largely out of social justice issues. When a people have been suppressed, killed, raped and/or displaced, the nervous systems of the survivors naturally respond in negative ways. So social justice is a crucial part of mental health.
   Supporting human rights, whether it's by donating to or volunteering at local, national or international organizations, is also supporting mental health needs.