Healing with art-based therapy

Two Israeli therapists in the field of stress and post trauma management are in Sri Lanka to impart the latest methods of dealing with persons suffering from these conditions. Distancing themselves from the traditional methods of care, they use creative art therapy, therapeutic cards and story-telling as methods to train the trainers who will in turn use these methods to assists those suffering from various psychological problems.

Nira Kaplansky who is qualified in Drama Therapy and Social Work and is attached to the Community Stress Prevention Centre in Israel had her first contact with Sri Lanka after the tsunami. Since then she has visited the country four times and is impressed with the progress that the psychological intervention has had in helping the victims of trauma.

Ms. Kaplansky and her assistant Yuval Behar have been training Sri Lankans in the field of psychological rehabilitation and care with the main aim of rising community awareness on mental health issues and mental health care with facilitation from “Sahanaya”, the National Council for Mental Health.

They use the method known as the “BASIC Ph” system introduced by the Dr. Mooli Lahad, the founder of the Community Stress Prevention Center in Israel. This system uses Belief (B), Affect (A), Social Interaction(S), Imagination(I) and Cognition(C) to deal with the psychological impact any form of trauma can bring to one’s life.

“It may be something one experiences in childhood, it can be the death of a loved one or an accident that one suffered. This system will help them cope better with the trauma and put it at the back of their minds and get on with their lives,” Ms. Kaplansky explained.

She sees some similarities in the situation in Sri Lanka and Israel where both countries have had to deal with the issue of terrorism which has left many people traumatized particularly members of the military as well as civilians caught up in the violence.

“We use art therapy to allow persons who undergo the training to express themselves without any inhibitions. For example, we ask them to draw a chart depicting stages of their lives up to date with different colours to denote what they were experiencing at that time in their lives,” Ms.Kaplansky added.

Similarly therapeutic cards are used for people to describe their feelings, personality etc. They then go out into the community and use the same methods to assist people suffering from trauma to take control of their lives and move on, she said. Among those who have followed the training programme conducted at the Sahanaya Resources Centre at Gorakana, Panadura are Buddhist monks who have had in many instances to deal with victims of the tsunami who flocked to temples to find solace.

“I did my thesis on near-death experiences using 57 persons who had undergone such an experience. One thing that I found was that people who had been engaged in creative activities such as art, sculpture, storytelling etc were more resilient in coping with the traumatic experiences in their lives than those who had not been engaged in creative activities. The creative ones were better equipped to deal with problems later on in life better than the others” she concluded underlining the value of art-based therapy.