art_3.

qxd 23/07/2004 10:24 Page 1

Art Therapy in Schools

Working with Children who have Experienced
Political Violence and Torture
A Booklet for Teachers
Written by Debra Kalmanowitz (MA, RATh Arts Therapist)
and Sheila Kasabova (MA Counselling Aspects in Teaching and Learning)
Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Team
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:34 Page 2

The paintings I make can change my life. Rather than

revealing something about who I was when they were
created, the images will sometimes make a statement
influencing who I will become. (McNiff1992:64)

Acknowledgements
Designed by Tom Salinsky (07956 009174)
Printed by Alden Press
This booklet was produced by the Medical Foundation as part of its
work with lincs (Learning in Central Camden Schools), London
Borough of Camden Education Action Zone (2000-2003). We are
grateful to the staff, children and families with whom we worked.
© Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture 2004
A registered charity number 1000340
Published July 2004

2 Art Therapy
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:34 Page 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
The Importance of Art for Normal Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Art Therapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Exerpts from Two Art Therapy Groups in Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Children who have Experienced Political Violence and Torture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
Trauma and Loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
What are the Basic Practical Requirements for an Art Therapy Session? . . . . . . . . . .18
Referral to Art Therapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
How can Art Therapy Help Facilitate Learning and Social Development? . . . . . . . . .19
Collaborating with Schools – Working in Partnership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
What do the Children Say? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
What do the Teachers Say? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
Booklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Art Therapy 3
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:34 Page 4

4 Art Therapy
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:34 Page 5

Introduction
The aim of this booklet is to help teachers better understand art
therapy1 in the context of schools and its usefulness to children
who have experienced political violence and torture.
It is important to acknowledge from the outset that the majority
of children who have experienced political violence and torture
will not need specialist intervention. This work is for those children
who do.
School can be a positive environment for bringing in resources
from the community and making them accessible to children, their
parents2 and teachers. School is a familiar environment for parents
and children and therefore a place through which parents may feel
confident enough to accept help that they might not ordinarily
consider. This is particularly relevant for refugee families who may
be socially isolated and unfamiliar with support services in the UK.
The Medical Foundation works specifically with children,
adolescents and families who have experienced a high level of
political violence, separation, loss and change.3 We recognise that
the specific impact of these events are cumulative and often affect
the child’s capacity to deal with new situations. The development
of these children may be interfered with. Some children may find it
difficult to move forward while others show uneven development.
Crucially this has a significant influence on the child’s academic
and social functioning.
Teachers and clinicians are aware that extreme experiences,
complex feelings, and confusing circumstances are often difficult
for the child to talk about. Many teachers may find listening to the
experiences of these children very difficult as the experiences of the
children are often catastrophic and brutal, bringing to the listener
situations of life and death and issues such as fear of annihilation
and abandonment.
Art therapy provides an opportunity for children who are
exhibiting problems to begin to integrate their internal experiences
(thoughts, perceptions, emotions, etc) with their external experiences
(war, loss, violence, exile, etc.) and their past with their present. It

1 The term art therapy denotes all art forms arts therapy.
2 The word parent denotes parent or carer.
3 The Medical Foundation works specifically with people who have experienced torture and
high levels of political violence. Clearly, not all refugees fall into this category.

Art Therapy 5
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:34 Page 6

The tank. War and killing.

helps these children to express their feelings, to begin to give

meaning to their experiences and perhaps to reconcile themselves
with the multifaceted disruption and fragmentation in their lives.
But just as importantly, art therapy provides a creative and
alternative way of working which centres around the making of art
and developing flexibility, creativity, imagination and spontaneity.
In so doing it has the potential to mobilise the resilient aspects of
each child.

The Importance of Art for Normal Development

The process of drawing, painting, or constructing is a complex one
in which children bring together diverse elements of their
experience to make a new and meaningful whole. In the process of
selecting, interpreting, and reforming these elements, children have
given us more than a picture or sculpture; they have given us part
of themselves: how they think, feel and see. (Lowenfeld1987:2)
Art is of vital importance to children. It is one way in which a
small child can interact with, and understand her4 environment.
This enables her perhaps to participate more fully in the complex
and often confusing adult world.
The involvement of a child in art is a very individual and
personal experience. It provides the child with an opportunity to
create and to see the product of her creation. Art can be a means of

4 The word her is used to denote both male and female throughout the text.

6 Art Therapy
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:35 Page 7

self-expression and communication with others and can also be a

very personal interaction between the self and the art medium. The
former may help the child to feel her own worth, know greater
self-esteem and begin to understand her world.
The importance of art for interrupted development
Artistic expression is also important in circumstances when extreme
events and traumatic experiences have overwhelmed the child. Art
making may allow for cathartic expression, help the child to
express what may be ‘unspeakable’, and to re-connect with her past
memories and feelings. It can also help the child make sense of her
difficult experiences and place them in context. All this is vital in
helping the child to develop and move forward.

Art Therapy
What is art therapy?
Art therapy is a combination of disciplines: art and therapy. The
Greek origins of the word therapy suggest serving and attending to
another and art is seen as a mode of intrinsic personal expression.
Art therapy is the disciplined reflection on these two processes.
In an art therapy session the child is involved in making art
(painting, sculpting, writing a poem, telling a story, dancing, acting
out a scene). It is through this process that the child can begin to
make meaning of events, emotions or experiences in her life, in the
presence of a therapist.

My Family. The disintegration

of family.

Art Therapy 7
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:36 Page 8

The content of the image

made in the art therapy session
can contain many meanings. It
has the capacity to hold the
personal, the archetypal, the
social, the spiritual, the political,
or the transpersonal at one and
the same time. This allows for
the individual pace of the child
to unfold as the child becomes
ready to accept different levels
of her initial expression, which
remain as a visual witness to
which she can return.
Art therapy works on many
levels: through the absorption in Puppet. Make a puppet of someone important
the art-making process, through to you.
the dynamic of relationships,
through the dynamic of
conscious and unconscious and through reflections on the content
of the image itself. At the centre of art therapy is the understanding
that all of the above can lead to change. Art Therapy does not rely
on previous art skills.

What happens in an art therapy session

In the art therapy session the child makes art. The child is
encouraged to explore and experiment, to find her own way. In the
art therapy session there is no right or wrong way to make art, only
a way in accordance with the unique nature of the individual child.
Within this, however, clear boundaries or limits are set in which the
art therapy session can take place.
The art therapy session provides a regular, reliable, confidential
space in which the child receives focused attention. The child is
regarded as an individual with internal resources for her own
development.
The child becomes aware of the permissive nature of the art
therapy environment as set up by the therapist. Through the
reflections and the attitude of the therapist the child gains an
understanding of the therapeutic boundaries and the nature of her
freedom and responsibilities. The therapist may use expressions

8 Art Therapy
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:36 Page 9

such as: “This is your time and space”, “This is your art work, the
decision is yours”. The art therapist may offer technical help,
encourage expression, facilitate a creative environment, reflect on
individual or group process, offer information or point out
possibilities the child has not seen. But her constant attitude is to
encourage and empower the child to find and develop her own
capacities and skills.
Why art therapy with children who have experienced political
violence?
Political violence is by its nature out of the realm of the ordinary. It
is a situation in which individuals have been forced to experience
the horror of the violence itself. In art therapy the art therapist
must work not only with the traumatic experience and its impact
on the child, but with the resilience and coping of the child too.
Despite this we are aware that the internal resources of the child
may have become stuck (inflexible and inaccessible) and refugee
and asylum seeking children may feel trapped by worries and often
long for a sense of freedom to play and imagine. It is the role of
the art therapist to help the child to reconnect to her internal
resources and to her capacity to mobilise these. Following are a few
working thoughts:
• The experiences a child goes through may be imaginable but
unspeakable. The art allows for concerns to be expressed in a
very concrete form and yet still to be expressed symbolically,
metaphorically, or through displacement. Some children may
find it easier to speak about a fictitious character (rather than
themselves) or to draw/paint/sculpt something (abstract, or
concrete), rather than saying it.
• The art-work can emotionally contain the child and/or serve
as a cathartic expression, for example, to vent anger, express
sadness, terror or fear, as well as to express joy and hope.
• When children are terrified they may cope by forgetting
some of their experience and in so doing they may keep
things in the unconscious at some cost to their thinking and
functioning. Art therapy can work with the dynamic of the
conscious and unconscious and serve to allow for expression
of both.
• Trauma may result in the child becoming rigid so as to cope
with her experience. The use of art encourages the child to

Art Therapy 9
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:36 Page 10

Painting. Addressing death and

dying.

work creatively and to find creative solutions to the art-work

in front of her. Lowenfeld (1987) writes that the art-work
encourages the child to question, seek answers, to find form
and order, to rethink and restructure and find new
relationships. This creative approach towards art may carry
over into other aspects of the child’s life – social
interactions, academic functioning and ability to solve
problems.
• The art therapist is trained to know when to address the
emotions or concerns that emerge (in the art work and/or in
the dynamic of the session), comment or reflect on these, or
hold them for the child until she may be ready to hold them
herself.

Art therapy groups

In the art therapy group the child makes art in the presence of her
peers and the therapist. This exposes each child to the images made
by other group members on both a conscious and an unconscious
level. This also allows them to learn from their peers, and to
become aware that other children may be feeling just like them.
Through the group they learn to interact and share, to broaden
their range of problem solving strategies, to tolerate difference, to
become aware of similarities and to look at memories and feelings
that may have been previously unavailable to them.

10 Art Therapy
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:36 Page 11

Individual art therapy

In an individual session the child makes art in the presence of the
therapist alone. Individual art therapy gives the child who is not
suited to a group, an opportunity to work through the art
consciously and unconsciously and the possibility to be supported
by a therapeutic relationship.
Interpretation of art in art therapy
The image, picture or enactment in the art therapy session may
take many forms (imagination, dreams, thoughts, beliefs, memories,
feelings). The images hold multiple meanings and may be inter-
preted in many different ways. The art therapist never imposes
interpretations on the images made by the individual or group, but
rather works with the individual to discover what her art-work
means to her.

Exerpts from Two Art Therapy Groups in Schools

The following are two extracts from two different schools. All
names, countries and circumstantial evidence have been changed
for confidentiality.

Case study: A year 6 group

As we accompanied the children to the art therapy room John
showed us a copy of a ‘passport’ he had been handed on the way to
school. John was very excited by this fake passport and held it
close, as if he had been given something of extreme value by a
stranger at the tube station. He showed it to the children in the
group and pretended that he could use it to leave the country. The
other boys looked on. Some getting pulled along by John’s
excitement, whilst others said, ‘but John it is not real’.
Responding to the interest shown in the passport we suggested
that the children may want to make a passport, or an identity card
for themselves. This idea was taken up with great excitement.
Slowly all the boys moved away from trying to reproduce John’s
fake passport and individualised their own passports and ID cards.
For this case study we have chosen to describe the process of
three boys out of seven in the group.
Phillipe began a little unsure. But as the session progressed
became increasingly involved. He worked hard at getting the shape

Art Therapy 11
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:37 Page 12

Passports. Identity and he wanted and the size

belonging
of the ID picture just
right. He received
much praise for his self
portrait (which was of
a wrestler). He looked
up proudly at what he
had made, but not yet
finished. Phillipe had
made the ID card of a
25 year old, American
wrestler. He was so
proud he wanted to
immediately show it to
his teacher.
Ardian waited for some time to see what the other children in
the group were doing. He sat folding a piece of paper in his hands
casting his eyes around the table. After some time he began to draw
as he always did, half concentrating on his own work and half on
the group. He found a flag of his country and began to copy this.
Strong reds and blacks appeared on his page. He coloured with
great energy whilst vigorously blocking his work from the view of
the group.
It was in the few moments we diverted our attention from him
that he tore the flag off his passport. One quarter of his folded
page had gone. When we asked where it was he shook his head.
What remained was a UK passport with his name on it. Ardian
appeared silently frustrated, angry and sad. The other boys noticed
what had unfolded and gently tried to understand what had upset
him, but he just lowered his head.
John wanted to make a ‘British passport’ for himself. He was
very clear – he wanted to be able to leave the UK and for this he
needed a formal ID. He began by meticulously copying the ‘British
passport’ he had been handed at the tube station. This became a
British passport with an Afgani flag. On the front he wrote
“London-Afganistan return”. On his passport he wrote his name,
his date of birth, his father’s name, his mother’s name, his sister’s
name, his brother’s name. He also wrote born in the UK and gave
his address as Kings Cross. By the end of the group he had decided

12 Art Therapy
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:37 Page 13

that this was the passport of a British born Chess Champion whose
parents were born in Afghanistan.
This theme of passports seemed to resonate with each individual
child. All the children in this group had lost at least one family
member and a life that was familiar to them. None of these
children or their families had passports and they knew that they
were neither free to stay or to leave the UK of their own volition.
In addition the documentation of full formal names, including
the names of parents, grandparents and siblings allowed for a
documentation of a family history. This was significant for all the
children but particularly for the unaccompanied children in the
group.
Case study: A year 7 group
The children entered with an abundance of energy, excited to be
meeting again after six weeks and eager to make art. There was a
continuous babble in the room, almost like that of babies trying out
their voices, and yet we could hear no particular words. There was
a sense of playfulness, light-heartedness, and a spirit of co-
operation. Along with this there was an undercurrent of volatility –
a testing of boundaries, as if this was the first group, and yet there
seemed to be a desire to hold back, not to go so far as to destroy
the group.
Over the break one member of the group (Robel) had left the
group to return to his country. For the children in the group his
departure raised the question of going ‘home’ and each child had
individual ideas, fantasies and thoughts about their own possible
return. Robel’s departure from the group had raised an issue that
had clearly caused anxiety and fear for each child.
We had already come to understand that this group of children
had little capacity for reflective thought and found dialogue and
listening challenging. This made it difficult for them to feel
supported by either their peers or ourselves. Their emotions were
played out in actions, and emotional support therefore took a
concrete form.
For this session clay was suggested. We observed as the clay
sculptures emerged. Some of the children punched it angrily, others
moulded, cut, scraped, sliced, rolled and smoothed the clay, while
others added water. Once the water had been poured the clay
transformed into a slippery, slithery substance. The clay became

Art Therapy 13
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:38 Page 14

A pizza turns into a gun.

Working in clay.

thinner and in some cases grey and fluid. The majority of the group
were using the clay in a purely raw and sensual way, rather than
manipulating it to an aim. This was another reminder to us of how
emotionally young most of these children were, despite their
chronological age and their adolescent airs. Their emotions were
raw, uncontained and potentially overwhelming to them.
There was a sense that no matter what was offered they could
not get enough and running parallel to the fluid use of clay were
requests for more clay, more clay utensils, more time by the sink, a
longer art therapy session (“why can’t this club carry on for four
hours”).
The clay allowed for cathartic expression of the very young
emotional needs of these children. Miriam finally produced what
she described as a pizza and an African-style pestle and mortar for
pounding grain. Peter described his objects as a basket for fruit and
a pizza, which he later transformed into a gun. Beti spent the
majority of the session punching the clay, rolling the clay and
pouring water into her sculpture. In the final moments we were
surprised to see a sculpted form emerge. She described this as an
island, with two trees surrounded by a watery mote. Valbona
created a little doll’s house. Slowly and quietly she assembled the
sofa, the cup, the rug and the television. Mbenza poured so much
water onto his block of clay that it became a muddy heap, difficult
to control. He found a polystyrene cup and forced his wet grey mass

14 Art Therapy
art_3.qxd 23/07/2004 10:25 Page 15

densely into the cup. He pretended it was a phallus, pushing it into

the cup with such force that it split at the sides. Out of the oozing
clay he made what he described as a castle and yet it bore very little
resemblance to a castle, but looked like a house compound set into a
surrounding circle of bushes with a central gate.
This group of children was particularly emotionally volatile and
developmentally young. The children in the group found great
difficulty in coping with the experiences they had lived through. In
this particular art therapy session intense feelings of fear, anger and
anxiety were prevalent. The art making process facilitated the
expression of these explosive feelings in a safe and contained way.
In this session it was the engagement in the clay that provided a
degree of relief, rather than the final products that emerged.
The children’s need to test the trust worthiness and stability of
this group and to test whether we, the adults could keep them safe,
was particularly pertinent for each child. The ability of adults to
keep their children safe is often a relevant theme for refugee
children who may have lost faith in the adults in their lives and
their capacity to protect them.

Children who have Experienced Political Violence and Torture

Children who have experienced political violence and torture have
had to leave their home country and all that was familiar to them,
often under the real threat of being killed. Some may have

Working with clay. After an hour a

castle emerges

Art Therapy 15
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:40 Page 16

experienced rape, torture and other violent physical attacks on

themselves. Some may have seen dead and dismembered bodies,
watched their homes being destroyed and people close to them
being brutally treated and killed. Children may have experienced
all of this and in addition been forcibly separated from their
parents or forced to witness their parents being beaten, raped,
tortured or killed. Others may have become child soldiers, been
forced to kill, to rape and to take drugs. These are some of the
experiences we most commonly hear. Additionally, for some the
journey into exile may have been a complicated, dangerous,
extended and deeply terrifying experience in itself.
Whilst most imagine a new country where peace and safety will
be assured, in reality they may face hostility, xenophobia and
outright racism. They will also face harsh asylum legislation and
prolonged uncertainty. In addition, children face a life temporarily
devoid of familiar references and one in which even their parents
may be inexplicably changed and emotionally unavailable for them.

Trauma and Loss

When thinking about working with survivors of political violence,
it is often not useful to use the term ‘trauma’ but rather to think
about the children in terms of being overwhelmed by sometimes
diffuse feelings, anxiety, and intrusive, uninvited memories of the
past. Crucially this feeling of being overwhelmed will be

Memories of a
child soldier.

16 Art Therapy
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:40 Page 17

The hand. Cultural integration,

resilience and ritual.

experienced periodically at irregular intervals, often leaving the

child afraid, humiliated, regressed and experiencing a loss of
control in many aspects of her life.
The child may have lost many functions (physical and
psychological) such as an ability to concentrate, ability to memorise
new information, loss of bladder control and/or loss of the capacity
to sleep. These children are often intruded upon by bad dreams,
night terrors and nightmares. Additionally, they may experience a
loss of dignity and humanity. The child may feel isolated in her
experience and may have lost her voice. The child’s self esteem
often suffers as a result of trauma as this may halt her development.
It is nevertheless important to keep in mind the resilient aspects
of the child and assess what protective factors there are in the
child’s life (such as a functioning family, strong moral values, a
degree of flexibility and a capacity to form relationships with
others.5

What are the Basic Practical Requirements for an Art Therapy

Session?
An important aspect of the art therapy is the setting of limits.
Limits define the boundaries of the relationship and tie it to reality.
They offer security and at the same time permit the child to move

5 See Melzak S and Punamaki R for further reading on coping and resilience.

Art Therapy 17
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:40 Page 18

freely in her art making and play. The boundaries include the
maintenance of time, space, rules and confidentiality.
• A regular time. The therapy session takes place at the same
time each week.
• A regular space. It is preferable that the sessions take place in
the same space each week, without interruption.
• Rules. The establishment of clear rules concerns the safe use
of the art therapy session and art therapy room.
• Confidentiality. This is explained and adhered to from the
outset.

Referral to Art Therapy6

Referral to art therapy will include children with many different
needs:
• children who are underachieving at school
• children who find it difficult to concentrate
• children who are withdrawn and isolated
• children who find it difficult to express themselves verbally
• children who may be overwhelmed by their experiences and
express their emotions through different and unusual
behaviours, for example, aggressive or violent children,
children who are excessively restless or children who are sad
or depressed.
Art therapy can be offered as a short-term, medium or long-
term intervention.

How can Art Therapy Help Facilitate Learning and Social

Development?
A child’s internal conflicts may interfere with her social and
intellectual development. By working with these conflicts in the art
therapy session the child may be enabled to relate better to family,
teachers and peers. Thus art therapy could be seen as integrative
and part of the overall learning experience, rather than separate
from it.

6 When a referral is being made careful communication and dialogue needs to take place with
parents as to the reason for referral and the nature of the therapeutic intervention being
offered. Some parents may equate referral to art therapy with ‘madness’. In this context
consideration needs to be given to the cultural implications of therapy.

18 Art Therapy
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:40 Page 19

• Within the focus of the National Curriculum, many of the

less formal elements in a child’s progress may be lost. Art
therapy approaches the child from a different angle in the
hope of providing, and finding a way in which the child can
function, and from which the child can be viewed from a
different frame of reference.
• Teaching and art therapy are both concerned with growth.
Some children have difficulties in functioning educationally
because of emotional distress. Art therapy attempts to
address emotional concerns, potentially leading to improved
educational functioning.
• Through the arts and through play the child has the
opportunity to learn and build upon their communication
and social skills.
• Through the arts and through play the child has the
opportunity to learn new skills, for example manual
dexterity, visual communication and the possibility to find
creative solutions to visual or artistic problems.
• Art therapy has a unique contribution to make as a way of
reaching children who sometimes appear unreachable.

Collaborating with Schools – Working in Partnership

It is in the best interest of the child for different professionals
(teachers, art therapists, mentors, community workers, parents and
so on) to work and to reflect together about the children in school.
When working together professionals need to be able to
acknowledge and be aware of the specific boundaries of their
profession if they are to play a complementary role and form a
holistic view of the child. This is particularly important in working
with children whose lives have been fragmented by war and
political violence.

Working with teachers and support staff

Integral to an art therapy service in schools is the provision of an
opportunity to teachers for consultation and supervision about the
refugee children with whom they work. This can provide a
framework in which teachers can ask difficult questions, and
address the emotional impact on themselves of working with, and
listening to these children.

Art Therapy 19
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:40 Page 20

In addition, the children with whom we work may need to be

referred to other agencies. In this case the art therapist could serve
as a resource for teachers to help find the appropriate service.

What do the Children Say?

‘Making art made me think – when I had to draw
what I felt.’ Year 4 girl

‘The group helped me get used to things that don’t

happen every day. Moving to secondary school is like
cutting half my life off, leaving behind things that
mean a lot to me’. Year 6 girl

‘The group was fun, a new experience, getting to

know your friends proper. Talking about private
things that nobody else knows. Having someone to
talk to that don’t tell.’ Year 6 boy

‘I liked clay because you make it with your hands.

Then we started to be friends. We are not allowed to
say “that’s ugly”, but sometimes we did. I don’t like it
when that happens. I like Mondays because of the
group. The group is kind.’ Year 5 girl

‘I liked the painting that we did together. I liked

talking to each other and painting together. In the
playground we don’t really talk to each other, we play
football and stuff.’ Year 6 girl

‘This group has helped me feel calm, to paint really

good and to be a good art worker. I now want to be a
lawyer, an artist or a cellist.’ Year 5 girl

‘The art therapy helped me feel calm. It let the anger

out of me.’ Year 7 boy

20 Art Therapy
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:40 Page 21

What do the Teachers Say?

‘For x (newly arrived) the group has given him space
to think and to gain some reflective distance on his
experiences of the mainstream classroom and
contributed to him settling in socially and
academically.’ EMAS Co-ordinator

‘She is more flexible now, less brittle and more fluent.

In the beginning she was reluctant to join the group,
but in the end she said, she now thought “it is good to
think, not wrong”.’ Year 5 Teacher

‘He is more confidant in class and in art making, and

is also more easy, more relaxed, a little quieter and
can be calmed down more quickly.’ Year 5 Teacher

‘He is more talkative, confident and flexible in class.

He has come out of his shell.’ Year 4 Teacher

‘She is more emotional and oppositional now, not so

quiet and distant, this is helpful.’ Year 5 Teacher

‘He has settled better now, is not getting into so much

trouble. He seems more relaxed in school.’ Head of a
Headway Programme

Art Therapy 21
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:40 Page 22

Booklist
Blackwell, D and Melzak, S (2000) Far from the Battle but Still at War
Troubled Refugee Children in School Child Psychotherapy Trust, London
Dalley, T and Case, C (1994) The Handbook of Art Therapy Routledge,
London
Dokter, D ed (1998) Arts Therapists, Refugees and Migrants Reaching Across
Borders Jessica Kingsley, London
Melzak, S and Warner, R (1992) Integrating Refugee Children into Schools
Minority Rights and the Medical Foundation, London (a pamphlet)
Melzak, S (1999) in Lanyado, M & Horne A (eds) Psychotherapeutic work
with child and adolescent refugees from political violence in The
Handbook of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Routledge, London
Punamaki, R L (2000) Coping and protective factors in Health Hazards of
organised violence in children(II) Pharos, Netherlands
Richman, N (1998) In the Midst of the Whirlwind – a manual for helping
refugee children Trentham Books, London
Rutter, J (2001) Supporting Refugee Children in the 21st Century Refugee
Council, London

References
Lowenfeld, V (1987) Creative and Mental Growth (eighth edition) Prentice-
Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
McNiff, S (1992) Art as Medicine Shambhala Publications inc., Boston
Massachusetts

22 Art Therapy
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:40 Page 23
art_3.qxd 19/07/2004 17:40 Page 24