Art as therapy is addressed to healthy children and their needs to express, control and define themselves and manage stress. Moreover, it is addressed to children with special needs that ceased to develop in the typical ways.
Creative development through art gives children the opportunity to be more liberated, strengthened in an inner and outer way, creative and having control of the sense of the self. It is about the way of the developing and evolving through artistic experiences.
Helping children in their emotional development, may entail offering, showing, talking, waiting. The art therapist is present but respects children’s right for their own space. Being thoughtful and accepting the uniqueness of children’s emotional life, the art therapist gives them the chance to gain their personal control and freedom within the aforementioned space.
The symbolic way of creation may literally liberate children and help them express powerful emotions using free paintings movements, while simultaneously containing their impulses, realizing that they are not as destructive or as disruptive as they thought they would be. They may symbolically re-live older traumatic experiences, experiment and practice for the future, learn to be responsible. In this way they are able to come to terms with the experience that filled them with fear and be in the position to freely develop.
“Knowing thyself” (gnothi sauton) is the actual getting to knowing ourselves. Its true essence lies in caring for the soul, self-awareness, awareness of our skills, abilities and potential. It helps us understand the way we could act in order to gain the real self-awareness.
P.P.Germanou 13,
153 41 Agia Paraskevi, Athens
Tel.: +30 210 6397284
Mob.: +30 6943 470586
e-Mail: info@gnothisauton.gr
