Articles

A new activity that the new community center is allowing us to experiment is art therapy. The staff member running the group reports:

Seven weeks ago, I started a women’s art trauma therapy program with young Syrian refugee women. I invited young women who are “too old” to attend school and are “too old” to be able to leave their homes unattended. For half the class this is the only time they leave their homes during the week. Other women in the program are young brides and mothers.

We started the program looking at pictures and talking where we saw light and darkness in them. We continued to talk about light and darkness we could recognize in our own lives and the importance of having a source of light. As the weeks continued we have talked about our uniqueness and appreciating our differences in art, but also as human beings and friends.

One woman said the third week she always dreamed of being an artist when she was small, but she had forgotten after she got married at 16 and had two children. Now she feels like her dream is coming true.