Therapeutic Arts and Vulnerable Migrant Populations in Greece

Kim M. Parrish, Ph.D., CFLE

Wilmington University, adjunct faculty // The Hard Places Community (Greece) Director
Kimparrish.matt.5@gmail.com

 Complex trauma is a common experience among refugee children and unaccompanied

minors.
 Literary arts, visual arts, and performing arts create a safe space for expression.
 Conclusive evidences of the impact in the therapeutic arts in vulnerable populations is
needed.

According to the United Nations Global High Commission for Refugees report (Grandi, 2016),
by the end of 2016, more than 67 million people around the world had been forced from home by
conflict and persecution. Working with refugees in Greece, including children and
unaccompanied minors who experience trauma pre-flight, trans-flight, and post-flight, we find
substantial levels of experienced trauma. Depression, grief or anxiety, separation from support
systems, inadequate language skill, and disparities in social, educational, professional and
economic status place the children in a vulnerable state upon arrival into the transition country
(Chan, Mercer, Yue, Wong, & Griffiths, 2009).

For our purposes, the arts refer to a vast array of displays of art forms, including literary arts,
visual arts, and the performing arts. Core benefits include self-expression, relaxation,
contemplation, cooperation, and self-esteem to name a few. Research connects the growing
trend that the brain’s right, nonverbal hemisphere mediates traumatic memories, which is shown
to be the same region activated in the process of artmaking (Glaser, 2000; Klorer, 2005).

In our experience, simple drawings open dialogue and begin to tell a story hard for words.
Natasha drew the story of her family crossing the Mediterranean Ocean in the dark, depicting
several people falling into the water, and a rescue ship delivering survivors to the shore. In the
unaccompanied minor section on another island refugee camp, teenage boys constructed bombs
and tanks from clay. While empirical data is limited upon the conclusive evidences of impact in
the therapeutic arts among refugees, asylum seeking, and migrant children, there may be several
beneficial outcomes of such interventions, from reduction of emotional problems (Khawaja, &
Griffin, 2015) to restoration of hope (Yohani & Larsen, 2009).

Selected References

Chan, Y.Y., Mercer, S., Yue, C., Wong, S., & Griffiths, S. (2009). Mental Health of Migrant
Children. International Journal of Mental Health, 38 (3), 44-52.

Klorer, P.G. (2005). Expressive therapy with severely maltreated children: neuroscience
contributions. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 22, 213- 220

Yohani, S.C. & Larsen, D.J. (2009). Hope lives in the heart: Refugee and immigrant children’s
Perceptions of hope engendering sources during early years of resettlement. Canadian
Journal of Counseling, 43, 246-264.
 References

Glaser, D. (2000). Child abuse and neglect and the brain-a review. Journal of Child Psychology
and Psychiatry, 41(1), 97-116.

Grandi, F. (2016). A watershed moment for the refugee cause. Geneva, Switzerland. Retrieved
from http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/the-global-report.html.

Quinlan, R., Schweitzer, R.D., Khawaja, N. & Griffen, J. (2015). Evaluation of a school-based
creative arts therapy program for adolescents from refugee backgrounds. The Arts in
Psychotherapy, 47, 72-78.