Art Therapy Conference for the United Arab Emirates
Chris Storm AThR, SEP and Clare Jerdan AThR, MA Gestalt
The Institute for Sensorimotor Art Therapy was recently invited to participate in the inaugural Art Therapy Conference for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), held in Abu Dhabi over October 17-18, 2023. Our highly experienced Institute faculty members Clare Jerdan and Chris Storm attended the conference, held workshops and presented to the delegates.
The conference was sponsored by the Centre for Sheltering and Humanitarian Care of the Victims of Human Trafficking (EWAA). EWAA is a local government organisation involved in supporting survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking. This includes practical support such as providing shelter, health, legal and psychological support across the whole of the Emirates.
It is to their credit that this hands-on organisation, which supports predominantly female victims, seeks to fully embrace the benefits that Creative Arts Therapies can bring in supporting the healing of those survivors - providing a vehicle for repair that transcends language and cultural barriers.
At the conference there was an inspiring line up of culturally diverse, committed and evidence-based presenters from a broad range of Middle Eastern countries including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Qatar and the UAE. There were also keynote presentations from the UK and the US, with Clare and Chris representing Australia.
Both Chris and Clare’s presentations were well received and there was a keen interest in Sensorimotor Art Therapy. Their keynote presentations ‘Listening Deeply: lessons from my clients’ (Chris) and on ‘Pendulation and the River of Life’ (Clare) were both well attended and invited further discussions with the conference participants and organisers.
For ‘hands on’ experiences the conference also offered delegates the opportunity to attend four workshops, and we were delighted to be invited to deliver two of them. Clare actively engaged participants through movement and shapes in her workshop on ‘Healing Trauma with Guided Drawing: A Sensorimotor Approach to Body-Mapping’. And Chris’s ‘Transitions to Safety: Using Sensorimotor Art Therapy’ group found everyone creating their own ‘Safety Buddy’ as a transitional object, developing a creative option to support clients.
Attending the conference was an amazing opportunity and both Chris and Clare valued the experience. They especially enjoyed meeting many strong women who were highly educated, published, established in their careers and running extraordinary programs for the disadvantaged and marginalised. Notably this includes Dr Amar Behbehani from Kuwait and Carol Hammal of Egypt. Both of these inspiring speakers demonstrated that after many years of advocating and delivering programs for women exposed to violence, the future of Art Therapy in the Middle East is strong.
This week the WHO and the UN have asked for a move away from the medical model of pathologizing, medicating and coercing people into treatment and re-traumatizing and disempowering people. The call is for a move towards social models, rights-based models, and trauma informed approaches to understanding distress and trauma. This supports calls from neurologists, psychiatrists and trauma specialists such as Bessel Van Der Kolk, Peter Levine, Stephen Porges and Ian McGilcrest for an expansion of bottom-up models of therapy. Sensorimotor Art Therapy is well placed to fill that gap through Guided Drawing and Clay Field Therapy.
Recognition of Sensorimotor Art Therapy is growing globally. We know from many of our training participants that therapists world-wide are very interested in working from a more sensorimotor based perspective. The invitation to bring these modalities to the UAE has been another step forward in creating opportunities for healing in the world, and one we are extremely excited and grateful to have had an opportunity to do so.
Words by Chris Storm and Clare Jerdan
Exploring Trauma Healing and Post-Traumatic Growth: A Profound Journey - Clare Jerdan
Video by EWAA Abu Dhabi
An enlightening session led by esteemed speaker Clare Jerdan from Australia, we delve deep into the realms of Trauma Healing and Post-Traumatic Growth.
AThR, SEP, M.Ed, CCPT, ACA, ANZACATA
AThR, M.A. Gestalt, ANZACATA, PACFA, IEATA
Healing Trauma with Guided Drawing®
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