Holistic Arts-Based Group Work with Children and Youth in Need
In the first three years of our research, we studied the feasibility, acceptability, and benefits of holistic arts-based group methods for the improvement of resilience in young people in need. This exploratory research led to the development of the Holistic Arts-Based Group Program (HAP). Currently, we are investigating the effectiveness of the HAP compared with control and comparison groups. In the HAP, a wide variety of arts-based methods are used to teach mindfulness-based practices. Mindfulness is a holistic philosophy and practice that is demonstrating great promise in work with children and youth.
Mindfulness is often understood as activity that encourages awareness to emerge through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment. Despite the challenges that young people in need experience, they can learn and benefit from mindfulness-based methods if these methods are facilitated in an engaging and non-threatening manner that meets their needs, and promotes and fosters success with the methods.
While children in need are a diverse group of children, they often lack many of the characteristics of resilient children such as positive self-concept/esteem, self-awareness, hopefulness/optimism, emotional expression, emotional management in stressful situations, and interpersonal problem-solving skills. In general, a review of resilience research with children in need demonstrates that there are calls for collaborative community-based approaches that are sustainable and strength-based, and which target multiple issues and outcomes. Accordingly, the HAP aims to build various aspects of resilience such as self-awareness, social and problem-solving skills, emotional understanding and regulation, self-compassion and empathy, and the ability to pay attention and focus, within a context that is strengths-based and responsive to the children's needs.
Children and youth who participate in our program consistently report that the HAP is a lot of fun. They really enjoy the (a) arts-based activities and games including mindfulness-based exercises, learning things about themselves and ideas about life, sharing and expressing ideas, learning to use imagination, and being encouraged to engage in a variety of activities; (b) eating snacks - we provide a healthy snack at break-time; and (c) making friends - many children in need are marginalized and it can be a normalizing experience for them to be in a group with children from similar backgrounds who have similar familial and life experiences. Importantly, we have found that it is through the experience of having fun and enjoying themselves that some of the children were helped to (a) develop self-awareness and to feel better about themselves and (b) learn emotional regulation and the healthy expression of feelings, which in turn enabled more effective coping with a variety of challenges including school.