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March 8, 2006
creata: hitec phototherapy group
by gl. at 4:09 pm
this is the fourth in a series of posts about workshops sponsored by CREATA during Creative Arts Therapy week. session date mar06.
arts therapy is a field primarily dominated by women. the presenter for the hitec phototherapy group is the only male presenter this whole week, and was the first to run his entire lecture from a powerpoint presentation in that style i hate: reading each of the slides to the audience. he obviously knew his stuff, but engaged with the computer more than he engaged w/ us.
this was, however, the first session that brought tears to my eyes. the phototherapy group targets troubled children ages 4-13 (average age=7 or 8) and has them create pictures or videos that represent their past, present & future. most of the children have been traumatized and abused and create gut-wrenching images. a particularly tragic sequence involved dolls: the title for the past was "i am scared." when i saw the present image and its title "i am the worst kid," my heart simply broke.
the presenter says he keeps the groups limited to four and says that teenagers in a group with younger children are a "disaster." ironically, though he's very firm about doing the entire still photography process manually, videos are created on an imac. he says he has a knack for how to write grants to fund this, and i felt everyone else in the room sigh wistfully.
posted by gl. | March 8, 2006 4:09 PM | categories: classes & workshops