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Reader Uses Art to Help Women and Children Dealing With Violence and Abuse
The following is a story submitted by a reader that I think is a wonderful story to share. Santilla helps out at a healing and empowerment center in New Orleans, Louisiana, where they offer safety and healing to women and children. It’s a testament to art, but also to how we can all do something to help others. Here is what she sent to me:
My name is Santilla Victorian and I am a fan of your site. I’m also someone who does arts and crafts at Crescent House in New Orleans, La. Crescent House Healing Empowerment Center offers safety and healing to women and children dealing with violence and abuse.
The Crescent House helps the community by
- supportive listening and personal empowerment
- connection w/ the community
- individual and group support
- case management
- legal advocacy and legal services
- spiritual support
It is run by the Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans.
I go in with my church, First Baptist Church of Kenner, and we fellowship with the ladies, feed them dinner, and do a craft project. I center a lot of the crafts on spirituality but not always. I’ve attached a picture of last month’s craft work. The ladies all made angels and many of them took on the personalities of the creators. I heard one lady call her angel, shy girl and another called her angel “the ghetto girl.” I told her there are angles in the ghetto too, so it was ok to have a ghetto angel.
We will decorate crucifixes in a mixed media manner on 6/3/09 and on 8/26/09 I will try a bit of the Transformational Self Portrait art you described here on the site. I will use a technique known as thumb doodles where I’ll have the ladies dip their thumb in paint and we will decorate the print in the form of little people. I will ask the ladies to draw facial expressions, hair, etc. I know it will amuse them and heal them at the same time.
I do not have a degree in Art Therapy. I am actually an auditor/trainer at an insurance company but this is something I do on the side. It is very fulfilling to the soul. The group ranges in size from month to month but it’s gaining popularity.
I appreciate your site a great deal and I wanted to share this photo with you. Thanks again for all you do.
Santilla Victorian
First Baptist Church Kenner / Crescent House, NOLA
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Filed as Sexual Abuse & Art Therapy | Comments (3)3 Responses to “Reader Uses Art to Help Women and Children Dealing With Violence and Abuse”
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Hi, i’d like to know, since you mention you don’t have experience in Art therapy, you see i have always been interested in Art therapy, interested to give art therapy workshops. However, how can i go about doing it? How can i start, what are the requirements. Any pointers or advice? You can check out my blog site, and email me back. thank you.
Hello my name is Shanti Scott-Peters and I am a counselor at a New Horizon Family Center in Baytown, TX that provides service for victims of family violence and sexual assault including emergency shelter, counseling, legal advocacy, and community education. I really love the angels art project Santilla Victorian shared. I am interested in learning more about the project. It seems like a wonderful tool for aiding survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.
Thanks for sharing,
Shanti
Hi I am totally new to this and i dont claim to be an artist. i am opening a community center in waxahachie tx. i thought about art therapy combined with the scriptures i did not know art therapy existed, any advice for me.