Arts Become Therapy

I came to know about this from a close friend of mine runs an NGO. One of his activities is teaching children from the neighbourhood chawls, and he was facilitating sessions for some of these kids on Arts Become Therapy(ABT). So what is ABT? Here is the definition from the website of the WCCL Foundation which trains ABT practitioners in India

“ABT is defined as the clinical and evidence-based use of art-forms (music, drama and visual arts) to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship. ABT is primarily an art form, practised scientifically, and based on the subtle energy theory. The subtle energy theory states that ‘reality is a perception, based on sensory input and cognition. Change in any of these will lead to a different reality.’”

The session which I attended was a drama cum story telling session conducted for 7 kids who had been observed having difficulties in concentration / focusing in class. The story was about how a rainbow got formed, and each of the 7 kids was playing one of the colours of the rainbow. The story tried to reinforce virtues of friendship, peace, harmony etc through the creation of the rainbow. There was a lot of colour, music, acting and fun in the whole process. This was a part of 8 such sessions being conducted over a period a couple of months (the earlier sessions focused on different creative aspects like painting & music). At the end of each session, observations are made about each kid, and the subtle changes are tracked across the sessions to understand the impact.

I understood from the practitioner about the interesting insights that you get into the psyche of a kid when he is exposed to such art forms. For example, in an earlier painting session – one of the kids actually drew a sword between 2 flowers. The kid is usually a quiet by nature, and the fact that he drew a sword surprised everyone. But then the practioner highlighted a point about the position of the sword. The sword was NOT in an upright position (which is more like ready for battle), but facing downwards (which is akin to surrender)! Experts in child psychology would be able to interpret more out of this, especially once they know the child’s background and other contextual details, but it was a powerful example of how expression in an art form can bring out a lot in a kid who has difficulty in expressing himself or herself!

More details about ‘Arts become Therapy’ in India can be found at the site http://www.wcclf.org