Finding Me

For the last seven weeks I have facilitated a group program together with two other counsellors within the Violence Against Women team. The group is now coming to an end and as I look back I realize this work has given me a lot of experience to bring into my future practice. The program is called Finding Me and expressive art is the method that we have been using. The participants are women who have experienced abuse in the past and is now trying to orient towards a life on their own and heal from the trauma; finding themselves. Every session has been focusing on various artistic ways to express feelings and thoughts, such as painting, writing, dancing, acting etc. The participants are not requested to have any artistic qualities and the work they do is not to be judged. There where some women who had worries in the beginning, but the creativity we have seen these weeks is astonishing. I am very glad to see alternative methods being used in social work, because I believe it is essential for a social worker to have a range of tools to work with. The diversity among people must be reflected in the social services we offer.