In response to the widespread effects of Hurricane Irene in the Northeastern US, helping professionals and concerned
parents are asking, "What can I do to help children cope with the disruption and help reduce their worries and fears?" And "how do I enhance
resilience in children who are worried and
fearful because of the hurricane?" Most research tells us that resilience in children is predicated on
attachment and bonding with parents and other adults and the amount of social support present in their lives. Experiences of attachment and bonding often involve family rituals, activities or traditions that bring about a sense of security, comfort and positive relationships within family systems. In fact, that is one reason why family rituals exist -- to help us feel safe and "feel better" when bad things happen.
When I visit a disaster site, one of the first things I ask families to tell me is about any rituals they already have and to describe why these rituals are important to them. I listen particularly closely to what children have to say about these rituals and then ask the family to show me what their most valued rituals look like. I generally ask them to either make a group drawing of their rituals or choose magazine pictures for a group collage, but I might ask them to sing a favorite family song or another artform (dance, drama or play) that tells me more about their traditions.
If you are a therapist or counselor working with a family post-disaster, you might want to start with having your family make a group collage about their rituals. You simply need to have some scissors, gluesticks, felt marking pens and a shoebox or small basket of pre-cut magazine pictures ready for everyone to choose from; home-oriented, sports, and outdoor magazines are a good source for images. Be sure to include images that represent diversity [ethnicity, gender, and societal], too. I recommend cutting pictures from magazines in advance of your meeting with the family to prevent your participants from leafing through too many magazines and getting distracted from the task at hand; remember, disaster survivors are generally overwhelmed and exhausted, so make this task as user-friendly as possible for them. Once the image are selected, I ask the family to work as a group to affix the images to a large piece of poster board, creating a "montage" of pictures. After the family completes the task, I ask each family member to talk about their creation and what rituals are most important to each of them in their picture. I also ask if there are any activities or rituals missing from the picture, if there are any they would now like to add as a family, and if there are any family mottos or sayings that we can add to their montage. Finally, I recommend that the family hang their final creation in a prominent place at home (or the temporary shelter they might be living in at the moment) to reinforce positive actions and rituals they can engage in as a family in the future.
Why is it important to encourage families to create a visual image of their rituals rather than just talking about them? Because participating in a creative activity together empowers the family and activates narration about positive events previous to time of the disaster. Because the activity is art-based, children are eager to participate and become natural "experts" in showing parents the how-to's of collage and drawing. But most importantly, active engagement in a family-created image capitalizes on the sensory experiences of art and play, stimulates storytelling, and reinforces positive bonding through hands-on activity that talk alone may not accomplish.
We are coming up on another anniversary related to a disaster that impacted a nation and the world-- September 11th. Much of what we now know today about how approaches such as art therapy, play therapy and sensory-based interventions help to ameliorate trauma developed as a result of what was learned after that event. I'll be revisiting some those strategies in the next few weeks and the healing role the arts, post 9/11.
[For more information on art therapy and disaster relief with children, see previous 2008 post, "When Katrina Happened, Children Drew."]
Cathy Malchiodi, PhD, LPCC, LPAT
© 2011 Cathy Malchiodi
www.cathymalchiodi.com
