Creative Arts Therapy (CAT)

A Creative Arts Therapy (CAT) program was set up in 2018 at a children’s community libraries for children and young adults from an underserved communities in Bangalore, India. Their parents largely worked as informal waste-pickers and are associated with a local NGO (Hasiru Dala, a not-for-profit organisation) that supports the livelihoods of waste-pickers and their families across Karnataka. As parents would work for more than 8-10 hours, children were most often on their own and were exposed to problems within the community – gang violence, alcohol and substance abuse, early marriages, school drop-outs. The library was set up as an alternative space that was nurturing for children and young adults where they could read, but also learn through play and imagination.

Over the last six years, the program has reached over 200 children and young adults. The overarching intention of the program is to use the therapeutic potential of the creative arts- namely drama, movement, visual arts, play, and cooking as a way to address some of the challenges experienced by children and young adults within such communities.

Project Leader

Pallavi Chander

Arts Therapist & Facilitator

Expanded Summary:

The program aims to centre the needs of the participants by offering culturally relevant and community-centred approaches with an anti-oppressive and decolonised lens to mental health practices. The groups explore art forms and the therapeutic aspects of embodiment, spontaneity, projective play, improvisation and role play that have held and addressed emergent themes, such as – gender disparity, their relationship to ceremonial rites, the impact of alcohol and substance abuse, domestic violence, need for education, to name a few. During the Covid pandemic, as the community had minimal access to broadband internet and smartphone devices, it was a challenge to continue the work. However, the program experimented with creating audio and video content in 5 languages to attend to the growing needs within the communities. We made informative audio pieces, including audio dramas with a therapeutic component where listeners could engage in simple art activities, breathing exercises to regulate themselves, as well as recipes for kashyams (herbal/health drink with home-made herbs spices), some of the recipes were from the community.

Initially, for the first 4 years, the program was held by one facilitator who was supported by the library team. However, there was a need to restructure the design of the program post covid to address the impact the pandemic lockdowns had communities we work with. Many families faced financial challenges due to job loss, several children dropped out as they missed out on online classes for 2 years, several young adults also had to take up work to support their families and there was a growing need for mental health support within the community. Several children and young adults began to request for the CAT sessions, as they found affinity towards the medium of the arts.

The Unexpected:

An important learning from the program has been within the group supervision space, where arts therapists/practitioners bring in aspects of their work – challenges, aspirations, new learnings, ah-ha moments – especially when it comes to making sense of one’s own privileged presence, the dynamics of power and privilege, the messiness of sitting with discomfort and much more. For instance, in May of 2022, there was a police crackdown in one of the locations, the families of the children we work with were forced to go into hiding, many had to leave the city, some camped in the nearby forests. It was impossible to trace the whereabouts of several others. There was much distress among the children who stayed back and they refused to go back to school. The facilitator had suddenly lost contact with children they had worked with for nearly 3 years. The sense of displacement and lack of safety also affected the facilitator. In the group supervision, they shared not knowing the whereabouts of the children made them scared and nervous. Besides the loss and sadness, they shared that they mostly felt anger and rage over the situation. Coincidently, in the same week, the facilitator too was given a week’s notice to vacate their apartment with no explanation from their landowners. Unfortunately, they were experiencing this displacement, almost just as their group. In group supervision, other facilitators offered support by holding space as they moved through this challenging phase.

We sat with our myriad reactions and responses to the situation – recognising that though as facilitators we come with privileges and resources, invariably we too will fall prey to systemic injustices. And yet, acknowledging that in the intersection of gender, caste, class, and economic status, owing to one's social location and privileges, systemic social injustices are experienced in varying degrees. We used paper and colours to reflect on our relationship to home and held space for anger and sadness. Engaging with our artworks not only gave space to shape our expression as responses to the moment but was felt as an act in solidarity, as resilience to hold on to hope as we grieved in anger.

...recognising that though as facilitators we come with privileges and resources, invariably we too will fall prey to systemic injustices.

OUTCOMES:

Currently, the program has a team of 5 community arts facilitators who collaborate to offer sessions for their respective groups across 3 locations. Each group has one facilitator who holds the process for a yearly cycle. There is an internal supervisor who offers regular group supervision for the facilitators and an external supervisor who guides the team with annual trainings and supervises the overall program. We now have a research component to learn and assess the impact of the work on the ground. This has helped us make changes to our approaches, break down processes, find theoretical readings and support each other in the work. As the program evolves, shifts its shape and changes gears with every cycle, there is a recognition that this work can be debilitating for facilitators to take on every year. The constellation of the team also changes with each year, making space for more collaborations and possibilities.

CONSIDERATIONS:

An important learning from the program has been within the group supervision space, where arts therapists/practitioners bring in aspects of their work – challenges, aspirations, new learnings, ah-ha moments – especially when it comes to making sense of one’s own privileged presence, the dynamics of power and privilege, the messiness of sitting with discomfort and much more. For instance, in May of 2022, there was a police crackdown in one of the locations, the families of the children we work with were forced to go into hiding, many had to leave the city, some camped in the nearby forests. It was impossible to trace the whereabouts of several others. There was much distress among the children who stayed back and they refused to go back to school. The facilitator had suddenly lost contact with children they had worked with for nearly 3 years. The sense of displacement and lack of safety also affected the facilitator. In the group supervision, they shared not knowing the whereabouts of the children made them scared and nervous. Besides the loss and sadness, they shared that they mostly felt anger and rage over the situation. Coincidently, in the same week, the facilitator too was given a week’s notice to vacate their apartment with no explanation from their landowners. Unfortunately, they were experiencing this displacement, almost just as their group. In group supervision, other facilitators offered support by holding space as they moved through this challenging phase.

Consequently, the process of developing community arts practices is held by a team, as it requires a community of arts practitioners, if I may say so, to learn, support and evolve together as we grow deeper into the work. Our learnings from this space continues to contribute to an anti-oppressive, decolonised and community-centred mental health knowledge systems.

Questions:

What questions did this project call attention to about what is needed to support the care and wellbeing of artists or communities in need of care?

Were there new learnings or an affirmation of past learnings?

RESOURCES

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