Empowering Children through Art and Expression

Culturally Sensitive Ways of Healing Trauma and Grief

Bruce St Thomas, Paul Johnson

• Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9781843107897
• eBook ISBN: 9781846426247
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychotherapy
• Index: Psychology

Empowering Children through Art and Expression examines the successful use of arts and expressive therapies with children, and in particular those whose lives have been disrupted by forced relocation with their families to a different culture or community.

The book explores how children express and resolve unspoken feelings about traumatic experiences in play and other creative activities, based on their observations of peer support groups, outreach programs and through individuals' own accounts. The authors argue that such activities in a safe context can be both a means of expressing trauma and a coping strategy for children to overcome it. This book combines personal and professional perspectives, using case examples as well as the authors' own childhood experiences, to demonstrate practical strategies for use with children, from drama and storytelling to sculpting with clay. It also equips the reader with knowledge of the theory behind these intervention techniques.

This book will be a valuable resource for professionals working with traumatized children who have experienced loss, grief, relocation and other kinds of trauma.

CHAPTER 1

The Importance of Myth, Reflection and Cultural Sensitivity

Introduction

Deeply embedded within each person’s life story are essential truths like those found in fairy tales and myth structures. The path that needs to be followed, the life lessons that need to be integrated and learned and the ultimate truth about our human limits and possibilities are held within a personal, internal realm. Autobiographical by nature, humankind wishes to be heard and more importantly to be understood. Personal encounters with trauma and loss create more complexity and confusion.

The human attributes of empathy, love and creativity are the essential supports and building blocks toward expressing complicated truths. Not knowing is often a point of struggle for both the traumatized client and the facilitator in the process. Discovering new connections between traumatic experiences and the feelings as well as physical sensations associated with such events means developing a safe place and safe relationship where such complex truths can be explored without being repeated.

Following are moments in a highly evolved creative and relational process whereby children bring the truth to light. Heroic by nature is the fact that such truths are both expressed and ameliorated in a natural way. Enlightenment is slow and at times unavailable when there is no opportunity for reflection or overview. Captured over time, stories, images, personal and social interactions and actual changes in the personal perception and awareness represent the springboard to insight, reflection and integration.

Grief and trauma literature, concepts of mythic structures, neuro-research and actual personal, social and creative encounters illustrate further the significance of self-healing. Awakening to the truth readers will discover that personal, social and cultural perceptions interact with uniquely held mythic truths about how the world operates. Personal myths are inseparable from collective myths. What is unique is that supporting the expression of inner truths opens the door for complex inquiry. For a time when quick answers, speedy cures, instantaneous computerized information and simple theories are sought after, this book theorizes that true solace for the trauma and loss in contemporary times is not simple. Instead such times require entry into the complex inner realities of personal and collective myths. Trust and meaningful personal relationships coupled with creative exploration open the door where the opportunity arises to both express and integrate emotions, experiences and sensations thereby uncovering the healing path to recovery.

Deepening trust

The child develops perceptions of the world both based on their direct encounters with culture which includes early and formative relationships. A multiply complex matrix between personal life experience, interpersonal, social, cultural, spiritual and developmental realities form a basis of individual perception. Such complexities not only form the basis of identity, but also establish the ways in which one interacts with the outside world. Based on the aforementioned, we believe that the concept of multicultural competence is flawed. It is a myth to assume that even with an academic understanding of different cultures, assumptions can be made concerning individuals and their family beliefs. Furthermore, even within one’s own culture the highly specific beliefs and myths held within a particular family, community or individual may be hidden and virtually unexplored. Complicating such intricate complexity is the impact of trauma and loss. During such encounters adults as well as children experience chaos and upheaval of previously held beliefs. Searching for the truth and needing to resolve conflict results in an uprising and battle with one’s self. Sorting through the realm of possibilities results in a highly individualized integration between the pain and suffering and the meaning of one’s life.

We question the notion that one can become “competent” at the culture of another as well as the experiences of another (Goldberg 2000). We would instead propose a model in which building trust and maintaining awareness is the goal for establishing competence. With “lack of competence” as the focus, a different view of practicing across culture emerges. The child is the “expert” and the facilitator is in a position of seeking knowledge and trying to understand what life is like for the child. There is no thought of competence—instead one thinks of gaining understanding (always partial) of a phenomenon that is evolving and changing. Unfortunately, most of us are ill prepared for this role. Helping professionals have been trained by those who taught about theories and techniques developed within their own cultural context. There is an irony here that as the world shrinks one becomes more aware of other cultures. Yet, as nations become more culturally mixed, it is more difficult to separate out the contributions of cultural differences.

In an ideal world most people would know about different cultures, be they regional, national, racial, religious, disability or gender oriented, or any combination. People would also adjust their behavior accordingly. However, in reality people are mortals who are neither infinitely flexible nor infinitely wise.

Rather than trying to fit children into formulas, we believe we should let them tell us about themselves through their art, their body language, their emotions and their words. Cultural specific therapeutic traditions are replete with instances in which legitimate subcultural expressions are pathologized, marginalized, or misinterpreted. This tendency toward monocultural universalism has undermined the complexity of diverse cultural traditions. However, art, play, story telling and other creative, spontaneous outlets have the unique opportunity to depart from this heritage by serving as a means for diverse cultural expression and enrichment.

Art itself may have different conceptions and functions in other cultures. Compare, for instance, writing as an art form in Asian cultures, design as a highly developed ability in Islamic cultures, or the evolved understanding of color and the spiritual function of art in indigenous cultures. The notion that art provides psychological healing in another culture is an assumption and the means by which it may do so is likely to differ from one cultural convention and ritual to another (Acton 2001).

It is critical to stay open to any indigenous or local healing traditions that are essential for cultural integrity and community identity. People need to be consciously aware of how certain individuals continue to force the patterns and rituals of western enculturation and colonization.

Our individualistic concept of the autonomous self may be in contradiction with the interdependent orientation or emphasis on family bonds found with some collectivist cultures (e.g. most Asian cultures) (Pendersen 1988).

Since one’s growth and the resolution of problems are rooted in family and community relationships in these cultures, self-exploration and individual decision making may be seen as self-indulgent and a threat to the social matrix. Finding help and assistance within community is natural to Asian cultures (Hocoy 1999).

Children may experience gender, age and development as critical factors. Individuals of Asian, Native American, and Middle Eastern heritage may still uphold gender and age as indicators of status, authority, wisdom and knowledge (Samuda and Wolfgang 1985).

Norms and standards based on a dominant culture have served to pathologize and discriminate against minority individuals as well as justify and perpetuate a social order that privileges those of the dominant culture. Testing and assessment favors individuals from cultures that emphasize field-independent cognitive styles and verbal and analytical abilities rather than field-sensitive cognitive styles that relate well to concepts in humanized or story format, of concepts that relate to personal interests or lived experience (Berry and Bennett 1989). Other characteristics of the field-sensitive cognitive style are the seeking of social rewards to strengthening relationships with others and the seeking of guidance and demonstration from teachers. The field-sensitive style has been found to be characteristic of many minority groups (e.g. Native Americans, Asian and Middle Eastern) (Samuda 1990).

Effective integration of cultural differences

Acculturation is defined as cultural change that results from continuous first-hand contact between two distinct cultural groups (Redfield, Linton and Herskovits 1936).

For individuals of minority backgrounds, issues of cultural identity are commonly found to be important to growth and development (Hocoy 1999). Acculturation speaks to the psychological process of an individual negotiating cross-cultural contact. This involves self-esteem, personal identity, general mental health and attitudes towards oneself, one’s cultural group and the dominant group. The prevailing framework of acculturation that accounts for an individual’s relationship to the dominant culture and to his or her culture of origin derives from the work of J.W. Berry (1998). The framework describes four models of acculturation (Integration, Assimilation, Separation, and Marginalization). Successful integration is based on an individual’s cultural identity maintenance and his or her relationship with the dominant culture. The process involves the maintenance of cultural integrity as well as full participation in the dominant culture. Assimilation results when aspects of one’s culture of origin are embraced while identifying with the dominant culture. Separation involves maintaining cultural identity and rejecting the dominant culture. Marginalization involves a loss of identification with either one’s culture of origin or the dominant culture (Hocoy 1999).

It is critical to recognize that interpretation is never culture free, that there is always the imposition of a set of meaning structures that derive from a particular cultural context (Greenfield 1997). For example, historically the image of the dragon in many western narratives often embodies evil or the devil; while in many eastern cultures it has always represented an embodiment of the power of the divine or the numinous, the image of which is considered to bring fortune and prosperity (Hocoy 1999). Therefore, a valid cross-cultural interpretation requires the application of a set of meaning structures consistent with the cultural background of the individual whose work is being interpreted.

Given the constraints inherent in cross-cultural interpretation, art and creative expression should emphasize process, experience and personal meanings for the child (Fagan 1998). Artistic expression as a means of amplifying the symbolic level of the child’s experience (Koff-Chapin 1996), or his or her intuitive experience (Belanger 1998), may be more effective than one that strives for reliability and accuracy in interpretation.

An understanding of the community in which the families live, its resources (i.e. religious organizations), and the impinging issues of personal violence and social problems is critical for effective intervention (Douglas 1993). An investigation of how art and spontaneous expression is utilized as a means of healing in a child’s culture of origin is invaluable (Acton 2001).

In the work of Florence Cane (1983), art therapist, children are encouraged to know the world through thought, movement, feeling and providing an action approach that utilizes many senses and does not rely on a verbal didactic communication. Art becomes a major form of dialogue among children and between the children and the facilitators. Children utilized large easles and large paper with art media in a body-centered approach whereby spontaneous expression led to more expressive possibilites. Resilient themes are observed through the art and often exhibited in role playing, conversation and body-centered activities.

Despite divergent cultural backgrounds, nearly all refugees encounter similar kinds of resettlement difficulties (Beiser, Turner and Ganesan 1989; Burvill 1973; Cervantes, Salgado and Padilla 1989; Farias 1991). These common stresses of cross-cultural adaptation may be exhibited through unresolved grief, intergenerational conflict and various psychological and behavioral manifestations of distress.

Discovering the meaning of personal and collective stories

Mythic structures are the personal and collective stories of humanity’s struggle for meaning. Unaffected by history or time, certain myths and epic writings go directly to the truth of unmitigated pain and the struggle of resolving and healing human trauma. Wisdom through the ages is reflected through the timeless stories told in fairy tales, folklore and through the epic myths of native people from all the world’s nations. Unparalleled in its genuine ability to be open to the truth of human suffering and misery is The Iliad or the “Poem of Force.”

Homer’s genius understood at a deep level the unobservable reality of how human fate is directed by the larger forces of nature and mankind. This epic genius uncovers the realities that actually govern human events as well as nature and ultimately provide opportunities for the human soul to express more freely its purpose and mission. Greek heroes and heroines succumb, one by one, to the loss of power and control only to face once again the vulnerable path to ultimate fate. Each episode in the myth uncovers human vulnerability that forces people to no longer administer power, greed, or violence as the prevailing truth that separates the enemy from the victim. Instead heroines and heroes recognize connection rather than alienation from their enemy. Such truths are only uncovered when they exercise the ability to pause and reflect. Stopping as they ponder is the only opportunity to consider hope or future peace.

In The Iliad Homer well describes his theme of how violence co-exists with humanity and compassion. Likened to the two symbols emblazoned on Achilles’ shield with one city at war and the other city at peace, Homer clearly illustrates through his writing how various heroines and heroes succumb to the tragedy of war and chaos with moments when they have opportunity to imagine otherwise.

Parallel to the theme of this book, within the pain and struggle of trauma and chaos are the seeds for wisdom, insight and ultimate integration and peace.

In a very dark moment when Apollo’s priest Chryses confronts the King Agamemnon with his unwillingness to co-operate in order to gain back Chryses’ daughter Chryseis, a plague breaks out amongst Agamemnon’s soldiers. Apollo the son of Zeus and Leta is incensed by the king’s refusal to co-operate. Men die of the plague and yet Agamemnon continues to spurn Apollo’s priest and his pleas and ransom for his daughter’s safe return. Achilles is called upon to recover Chryseis reminding Agamemnon that he has offended Apollo and that he must return the priest’s daughter. Achilles is gripped with an anguishing rage as Agamemnon refuses to follow the will of Apollo. Finally Agamemnon agrees that he will take Chryseis back but that he will send her back with his own ship and with his own crew. In return he tells Achilles that he will take Briseis who is Achilles’ beautiful partner. Enraged Achilles was about to draw his blade when the muse Athena was sent down from the heavens by the white goddess Hera.

Athena is present in the moment to check Achilles’ rage. She pleads with him to stop the fighting, now. Athena believes that Hera cares for and loves both Achilles and Agamemnon alike. She begs Achilles to lay down his sword. The truth according to Athena is that Achilles will be rewarded one day threefold for any outrage that Agamemnon has transacted. Knowing that if a man obeys the gods they will be quick to hear his prayers, Achilles puts his sword back into its sheath.

Chryseis in all her beauty is put aboard a ship and returned to her homeland. King Agamemnon then sent his aides to Achilles’ lodge to take Briseis in exchange. Stricken with grief, Achilles lets the aides witness his loss. Achilles prays to his mother. Hearing his prayer, his mother who is with her father, the Old Man of the Sea, comes to her son’s aid in voice and spirit. Achilles reviews the story with his mother. He recalls the battle and how Chryseis had been chosen for Agamemnon. How her father the holy priest of Apollo had offered ransom to win his daughter back. He also related how an old seer who knew the truth of Apollo unleashing the plague upon Agamemnon’s troops said that it was a plea for Agamemnon to know the will of Apollo. Yet Agamemnon still resisted.

Later in anger Agamemnon does Apollo’s will and makes animal sacrifices and yet takes Archilles’ beloved Briseis away. At this point Achilles pleas for his mother to go to Olympus and make an appeal to Zeus. Somehow Achilles felt sure that his mother could help...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. The Importance of Myth, Reflection and Cultural Sensitivity
• Chapter 2. The Center for Grieving Children
• Chapter 3. Children, Our Greatest Teachers
• Chapter 4. Building Trust
• Chapter 5. Anger, Fear and Conflict
• Chapter 6. Standing in Two Worlds: Inner and Outer Realities
• Chapter 7. Realities Become More Visible
• Chapter 8. Letting Go
• Chapter 9. Hope
• Chapter 10. The Authors’ Autobiographical Exploration of the Importance of Myth in Creating Personal Reality
• Chapter 11. Conclusion
• Subject Index
• Author Index