Hello, Hello, how do you do?

by Danielle Dembrosky-Bossert

Bhutanese children sing this welcome song at the beginning of each art therapy group held in South Philadelphia twice a month. The song originates from Dr. Vivian Nix-Early's (COO) work as music therapist and is used in many BuildaBridge art therapy groups as a welcome song or ritual.

BuildaBridge Art therapist Celeste Wade in addition to two other BuildaBridge Artists-On-Call, conduct culturally specific art therapy groups designed to address the mental health needs of refugees living in Philadelphia. Ms. Wade focuses on helping children access and express their individual thoughts through movement and visual art activities. The ‘Safety Dance’ is a prime example of this goal. One at a time, the children create a movement of their choosing and then movements are linked together to create a cohesive, repeatable dance. The completed dance requires special awareness, impulse control, and flexibility. 

At the start of these groups in August, there was very little individual expression as evidenced by children copying each other's movements and the therapists' movements. Nine months later, having the children engage in this activity each group, they have increased their abilities to express individual thoughts, creativity and improve their locus of internal control. Children also learn to express their individual creativity through visual art activities. 

At a recent group, children used varying colors within different patterns of their choosing to create individual mandalas. Often used in art therapy, the mandala (a circle) represents wholeness and often proves to be a reflection of how one is feeling at specific point in time. A very personal and introspective activity, the room was utterly silent for the entire twenty minutes children worked on their mandalas. In order to connect their individual creativity to that of the larger group, Ms. Wade then asked children to place their mandalas on a large mural mandala and asked children to draw lines connecting one another's mandalas. The activity was designed to unify the group and reveal the relationships between and with one another. 

These art therapy groups are BuildaBridge's role as part of the larger Philadelphia Refugee Mental Health Collaborative. The collaborative consists of refugee resettlement agencies, pyschologists and other health care providers, all working together to improve the mental health of refugees living in Philadelphia by providing resources, alternative therapies and referral systems to better assist families in accessing the help they need.