Creative-, Music- and Movement-Therapies

Expressing emotions

Leaving a mark and creating something: in the art and gestalt therapies, our patients once again experience themselves as authors of their own work, discovering new resources in their capacity, or reviving those they had before. Individuals experience respect and recognition for their creative achievements. That which they have created can be kept by the individual, bringing a sense of stability and constancy – an important symbol for those persons who had to escape from their home countries and have often lost everything.

A group of women at the Center ÜBERLEBEN have made their first attempts in a stone-sculpture course working with soap stone. Larger sandstone pieces are also available, which the women can sculpt using hammer and chisel, thereby creating their own personal artwork.

Using music as a bridge

Music and dance are an essential part of cultural identity for many of our patients in their homelands. This is where music therapy comes into play. Through music, our patients can express feelings of sadness and pain, but also joy and positive emotions. They hear, play and sing their „own“ traditional songs and thereby connect with positive experiences from home.

Feeling identity through movement

Life after torture often means no longer feeling a connection between the body and the soul. Our patients have retained the horror and pain of their experiences in their phsyical memories. The body becomes tense – as if the torture is still going on. Physiotherapy and concentrated kinesitherapy help these persons to break out of the vicious circle of physical and psychosomatic pain and to feel once again at home in their own body.

Fotocredits: Mikhaylovskiy/shutterstock