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Environmental disasters, displacement, war disrupts lives, leaving behind not only physical destruction but also profound emotional wounds. These workshops offer a creative pathway to healing and empowerment for individuals and communities recovering from disasters such as earthquakes, floods, fires, or displacement and war. By combining art-making and storytelling, these sessions are a catalyst for self-expression, community connection, and emotional recovery in ways that traditional methods often cannot reach. Each artist’s viewpoint is inherently singular, and it is this uniqueness that makes art such an effective medium for addressing collective trauma.
Designed for survivors, the workshops are rooted in the principles of play, creativity, and storytelling. These sessions are not therapy but are deeply therapeutic, offering participants a safe, optimistic space to process and reimagine their experiences. The workshops start with 1 minute drawing, work up to short dialogues, collaborative stories with partners, to personal stories. The activities include:
Play is the spark that ignites creativity. While often associated with children, the transformative power of play is vastly underexplored in adults. Here, in this unique setting, it works. Why? Because this is a community of adults facing circumstances where there is nothing left to lose; a place where play becomes a spiritual journey.
This freedom provokes a profound re-evaluation of life: What am I doing? How am I making choices? Are those choices in service of something meaningful, or bound by outdated patterns, societal norms, or unexamined values? Play becomes the catalyst; a moment of liberation, offering a fresh lens to explore purpose, meaning, and the authentic self.
Art has a unique capacity to transform trauma into expression. A blank piece of paper becomes a vessel of meaning, offering survivors a medium to externalize and process emotions that may feel overwhelming or unspeakable.
This process is amplified through play—a catalyst for creativity and openness to new perspectives. By engaging in these workshops, participants often move beyond identifying with their trauma, seeing themselves instead as creators, contributors, and survivors.
I see myself as a facilitator. I introduce specific activities, not as directives but as explorations. I concentratively observe, encourage, and challenge participants to explore their natural inclinations and creative tendencies. By cultivating an environment of acceptance, curiosity, and spontaneous play, participants support each other through their unique pathway. The community is guided to:
Workshops were successfully implemented with survivors of the February 6 earthquake in Türkiye, in collaboration with a dedicated team from Balıkesir University. The outcomes were profound: participants rediscovered a sense of agency, processed their trauma through visual storytelling, and began to reimagine themselves and their communities. Survivors described feeling seen, heard, and empowered by the process and it was the first laughter they had since the earthquake!
While initially designed for survivors of environmental disasters, these workshops are adaptable for communities experiencing collective trauma, including displaced refugees and all communities recovering from large-scale crises.
If you represent an organization, municipality, university faculty, or community group interested in bringing these workshops to your area, contact us to discuss your needs, goals and how we can create partnerships to make it happen. Together, we can create a transformative experience tailored to your community, helping individuals heal and thrive through the power of art and storytelling.
Let’s work together to turn recovery into renewal.
