"Creativity Key In Connection to Adolescents: Two Innovative Programs"
An adolescent's inner life often feels a bit like being in a command performance of an improvised play. Intense. Urgent. A work in progress out there for all to see. Teens are living expressions of the change process, with all its upheaval and uncertainty and sense of possibility. Because their development involves so much of the tension inherent to all life transitions, teens have a heightened need for a dynamic balance between stability and flexibility from the people and world around them, which makes them uniquely vulnerable when faced with loss.
"Because
they are already experiencing a shaky sense of self, grief and loss
creates different challenges for teens than for any other age group,"
states Laraine
Gordon, LCSW,
an
actress and social worker who founded and directs Time For Teens, a
not-for-profit organization based in Southampton, NY that offers a
bereavement camp in the summer and creative workshops throughout the
year, specifically designed for adolescents.
Creativity is key. "Grief that is pushed down will surface eventually," Ms. Gordon explains, "and there is a direct correlation between acting out behaviors such as drinking and drug use and the loss of a loved one. Utilizing creative techniques to help a teen express what they feel and to help explain the normal grief response helps promote emotional health. Psychodrama is an extremely helpful tool, because teens love to be dramatic and creative at the same time, and it does not feel so much like therapy to them." And current research bears this out. A study published in the British Journal of Social Work found that engaging adolescents in an active, dynamic process of remembering and creatively constructing a relationship to the person they lost significantly contributed to identity development.
Social worker and singer/actress
Staci
Block, MSW, LCSW
uses improvisation with teens as an effective technique for creative
communication about important issues as well as for development of a
range of life skills with teens. She created and directs Reflections,
a group of adolescent performers who present interactive shows on a
range of social and educational issues, through the Division of
Family Guidance in Bergen County, New Jersey. "The purpose of
Reflections is two-fold," Staci states, "to raise issues
with audiences on topics which are significant to adolescents, and to
have the teens in the cast learn more about themselves and the issues
about which they present. Although this is not a treatment program,
and all the cast members are volunteers, the teens experience a
process that is therapeutic and unique."
These programs allow teens to be themselves, with all their complex and contradictory emotional needs, probing looks at the world they are getting ready to take on as adults, and struggle for independence mixed with desire for guidance. Both emphasize creative experiences and group connections to maximize the healing and learning potential for adolescents. Ms. Gordon believes that resiliency is enhanced when we "give teens outlets where they can show individuality. Give them the ability to feel really good about themselves and to know that it is okay to laugh and have fun after a loss. Creativity gives them the outlet that is not typically provided them in their daily lives. They can begin to recognize what they are passionate about, find another perspective about concepts or perceptions they held about themselves."
Ms. Block sees immense benefits from role-playing, which "develops empathy and the ability to see things from another point of view. This of course is helpful in life, in relationships, and in conflict resolution." Through the improvised scenes, the teens get a crash course in role-training. Through the range of issues explored in Reflections' presentations, the teens "experience situations that they may not have encountered yet in their lives. By having the chance to work through the situation in a drama, it often helps them to prepare for what they would actually do if the situation were to occur. If the situation is something the teens has already experienced, the drama can help them perhaps see it in a different way."
Another study found that drama therapy aided psychological adjustment to trauma by providing:
empowerment as well as a healthy form of escape and enjoyment
a sense of personal space space
an
awakening to creativity and a sense of personal effectiveness;
a
metaphor to explore personal issues.
These programs are examples of meaningful innovations that creative therapists, educators and other helping professionals are implementing to help adolescents with the challenges they face to find their identity, make healthy connections and move toward adult expressions of their unique selves.
(1) Anne Cait, "Identity Development and Grieving: The Evolving Processes for Parentally Bereaved Women " British Journal of Social 2008
(2) "Clinical Effectiveness of Dramatherapy in the Recovery From Neuro-Trauma" Disability and Rehabilitation, 21.4 April 1999: 163
ONLINE RESOURCES FOR WORK WITH ADOLESCENTS:
Ms. Block wrote an in-depth discussion of Reflections titled "Reflections: A Teen Issues Improv Troupe" a chapter in Interactive and Improvisational Drama: Varieties of Applied Theatre and Performance, Adam Blatner, MD and Daniel Wiener PhD, eds.Read more about this book at www.interactiveimprov.com/contents.html.
Prevention Researcher has information and links to other organizations actively working to help teens create healthy lives and change society for the better.