Trauma in February
Our February update is full of trauma (but not ours). For two weeks at the beginning of the month, I was co-teaching the Arts and Trauma Healing course at the Center for Excellence in World Arts. I worked with three other teachers, who have had a lot of experience facilitating trauma healing groups in many locations around the world. The 18 students in the course came to Dallas from every continent, and they were eager to learn about how to bring the arts into healing contexts.
For a lot of people who have been through trauma (whether post-war, natural disaster, domestic abuse, or anything else), verbalizing what they are feeling is difficult. Being able to express their confusion and pain through drawing, singing, drumming, dancing, or other arts is an important step on the path to healing. So many people in the world are living through traumatic situations that it makes a lot of sense for anyone going out as a missionary or other cross-cultural role to have some training in how to minister to the hurting people they'll encounter on the field.
For the Arts and Trauma Healing course, the students complete a long reading list prior to arriving in Dallas, and then they spend two weeks together in an intensive classroom environment. Following the classroom session, they return to their homes and complete a final project--which they are working on right now. For me it was an interesting class to be a part of, and very different from other courses I've taught. I pray that the students will find innovative ways to bring their new knowledge to real-life situations of trauma, that the light of Christ may shine into the lives of hurting people all over the world.
For a lot of people who have been through trauma (whether post-war, natural disaster, domestic abuse, or anything else), verbalizing what they are feeling is difficult. Being able to express their confusion and pain through drawing, singing, drumming, dancing, or other arts is an important step on the path to healing. So many people in the world are living through traumatic situations that it makes a lot of sense for anyone going out as a missionary or other cross-cultural role to have some training in how to minister to the hurting people they'll encounter on the field.
For the Arts and Trauma Healing course, the students complete a long reading list prior to arriving in Dallas, and then they spend two weeks together in an intensive classroom environment. Following the classroom session, they return to their homes and complete a final project--which they are working on right now. For me it was an interesting class to be a part of, and very different from other courses I've taught. I pray that the students will find innovative ways to bring their new knowledge to real-life situations of trauma, that the light of Christ may shine into the lives of hurting people all over the world.
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