And case study
By Cæcilie Liv Greve Carlsen
24.9.-26.11. 2018
CASA Treatment Center, Los Angeles, USA
The following provides insight into a 10-week treatment program at CASA, where I used art therapy with clients who needed to rebuild their lives from various challenging life situations. My overarching problem:
“How does the use of the arts – such as dance, music, poetry, drama and/or visual arts – support people’s empowerment in recovery?”
Course
Once a week, all employees met for a case conference in a building called The Pike. The Pike is in the center of campus, surrounded by greenery. Its main room is large with floor-to-ceiling French doors. There were fold-out tables and plenty of chairs stacked against the wall. I was given half a wall at my disposal, where I brought a large cabinet that could hold all my art supplies as well as the participants’ artwork.
Presenting my plan for CASA
On Monday evening, September 10, 2018 at 6pm, I presented my program at CASA to about 35 clients and the clinical director. I stated that I was looking for 6-8 women who would be willing to follow a ten-week treatment program with me. We would meet every Monday evening from 18:00-19:30. My written description:
This is a fieldwork exploring the female journey of empowerment through therapeutic art making during critical transitional stages. It will focus on how the use of art therapy can increase client empowerment. Through the use of the arts as part of the program, we will use art therapy to explore the courageous journey from who we are now to who we want to become. The course will use dance, music, poetry, drama and visual arts to help participants visualize and embody traumatic experiences in order to process them collectively.
The fieldwork
Every Monday, participants were given a safe space and plenty of time to work on themselves and their personal development. The architecture of each session was:
1.check in circle
2.heating
3.Art unfolding
4. Fall and art dialog
The following is a sample of the 10-week course. Out of 8 participants, two victims of violence, Bertha and Liv, have a background in prostitution and abuse (all names are anonymous).
1.check in circle
Bertha is a 37-year-old Mexican American Indian woman living at CASA and in treatment for alcohol addiction, PTSD and anxiety. Bertha has a history of an abusive relationship: “Hi, my name is Bertha. I am an addict and alcoholic. I’m Mexican Indian American, so when I saw the transition phase in the post, I wanted to participate about women finding themselves. Our tradition is that you go out for three days and find your mission, so in my rites of passage I love creativity. My culture is strong, it’s important that it doesn’t get lost. I ended a relationship that has been detrimental to me, my heart, my mind, just everything, and this time it is. I know I’ve said it so many times, but he’s not healthy for me. Every time I’m sad, it’s because of him, so being here right now to be in this rite of passage with you guys is the right thing for me. I’ve always had a partner. I’ve never been on my own. I don’t have to worry about him being sad anymore.”
Liv is 28 years old, suffers from PTSD, is a heroin addict and has depression and anxiety. Liv has worked in the sex industry, partly as a prostitute, and has been a victim of sexual violence: “Hi, I’m Liv. I’m a heroin addict and the manager recommended me to come to this, because when it comes to art, yeah, so… I think the only thing that has constantly saved me from not killing myself has been as an artist in some form or music or writing or something like that.”
2. warm-up and 3. art making
Then warm up by moving freely to a piece of music. Then we sat down at a table of easy-to-work-with red clay, with each participant getting at least two handfuls of clay. From there, they were free to create a figure.
Liv had made a sculpture of half a heart: “I think my figure is a heart that has come to tell me that it’s not so complicated and that it’s not so simple. A voice from her sculpture said, she believed: “I am here to help you appreciate all parts of yourself.”
Bertha had modeled a turtle and said: “You must be worthy like the turtles. It’s actually very important what I’m going through now. I asked her what it would say if it could express itself. She replied “I am the magnificent turtle. I am here to tell you that I can swim many kilometers to reach my goal. I don’t want to just give myself to anyone anymore.”
One of the other participants responded: “This is a return to your self-discovery. Like your turtle, you may come out of your little box slowly, but the turtle is the one who wins the race. Slow and steady.
As her creative feedback to Bertha, Liv played the song by Enigma, “A Return to Innocence”
Liv said of sharing her music: “It was beautiful. I felt intimate with these few people tonight. I feel my heart for the first time in my life. It’s not shiny but battered. It has no reason to trust or love anyone, but it does anyway.”
4. Fall and art dialog
We discussed how and if they could take some of this into their daily lives.
Telling women that they are beautiful and special was something Bertha wanted to do more of. She also said she needed to visit her Native American center more often, preferably this week for emotional support, saying “Creator help me to wake up in gratitude, ancestors guide me, don’t let me lose sight.” She seemed to be dedicated to what she was saying with her eyes half-closed and hands clasped together as if in prayer.
Liv asked if she could bring her guitar to play an instrumental piece for the altar. She said she had never played in front of anyone before and was very shy but felt called to do this. The group supported her and thought it sounded like a good idea. Liv picked up her guitar and started playing. She seemed relieved and touched. The other women applauded when she finished. I asked them to reflect on what they saw and experienced and write it down in their diaries.
Subsequent thoughts:
However, there are certain commonalities between people who have been abused in one way or another.
For victims of violence, it can be a huge burden to face what happened, often repressing it in order to move on. But it doesn’t always work. In addition, because traumatic events are processed under extreme strain and stress, they are not properly ‘archived’ together or remembered as a coherent narrative. The victim experiences mental health problems that don’t go away, such as low self-esteem, depression, PTSD or anxiety.
Over the 10 weeks, each participant was given the opportunity to explore a possible way forward through creative exercises and projects. In this way, art therapy work can help victims of violence to verbalize and explore their wounds, while also exploring possibilities and desires for the future.
