Art Therapy Tour kicks off, therapy for adults and children at earthquake sites

Launching today, Monday, July 17, is the Art Therapy Tour project, the “art therapy” intervention dedicated to children and adults living in the places affected by the 2016 earthquake. The first stage will last until July 22 and will be held in Norcia and Sellano: it will then continue in Vallo di Nera (July 24 to 29), Cascia and Amatrice (July 31 to August 5), and finally Preci (August 28 to September 2). For each of the stages there will be five daily meetings, to be held from Monday to Friday: the children, who one day of the five will be accompanied by adults, will try to “reconstruct their ’inner places,’” the presentation reads, “through two different artistic-aesthetic experiences, both useful for the development of awareness and sense of reality, in children and in adults of reference.”

The project will, in fact, be divided into two parts: in the first part of the week, children will try to “reactualize” the earthquake: this is because, the presentation goes on to say, “experiencing anger and strength within the therapeutic relationship and in a safe condition will help participants to name and process, during the artistic process, experiences that would otherwise be difficult to express.” In the second part, however, the children, will build a village out of clay, a metaphor for the safe place in which to be comfortable individually or together with other people. “Home represents the certain place, the space that guards one’s affections and emotional sphere; it is a metaphor for the self. For those who have lived and live in earthquake-affected places, the house is also what is broken or lost, and being able to build it also becomes an expression of desires, dreams and the possibility of intervention in reality. The Village will therefore represent the set of everyone’s inner homes, powerfully conveying a sense of community and belonging, as opposed to the posttraumatic defensive attitude that induces closure and harmful isolation.”

All meetings will take place in common spaces made available by associations and administrations of the municipalities involved. The project is curated by therapists Monica Grelli and Loretta Salzillo, who designed Art Therapy Tour to help people affected by natural events metaphorically rebuild their places, feel safe, activate the process of historicization and live peacefully in the present. “Psychodynamic art therapy,” say the project’s creators, “becomes a useful and valuable tool, particularly in the presence of trauma such as this: useful in that it allows the theme to be addressed through metaphor, thus protecting the person from retraumatization; valuable because, by going to activate the creative process, it allows the fundamental transition from being a victim of an event to being the protagonist, or acting subject, of a phenomenon, a fundamental step in being able to regain possession of one’s life and rebuild it.”

After the first four stages, a continuation is planned from September onward (with dates yet to be determined) in the towns of Visso, Ussita, Castel Sant’Angelo, Civitella del Tronto, Montorio al Vomano and Cittareale.

Art Therapy Tour kicks off, therapy for adults and children at earthquake sites

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.