Our Field of Work
Who do we work with
Trauma creates severe pressure, anxiety and distress that may lead to the inability to function, learn and reaching one's full potential. Trauma is not only 'contagious', but is also intergenerationally passed on. The cycle is never ending unless we are able to to acknowledge this and address the ongoing crisis. This can be done by supporting our education system through creative art therapies
Some of the key ideas about the symptoms and effects of trauma that have recently been researched and proven:
- Children cannot access their cognitive thinking; reducing them to problem solve from their primal brain. Here they have 3 options to choose from: fight, flight, freeze.
- Children’s brain function and development are affected. Children’s capacity for memorising is severely hampered.
- Children that are traumatised cannot effectively ‘hear’ language as that part of the brain is affected when triggered.
- Children cannot ‘speak’ or express themselves through language when triggered.
- Children cannot relate to their peers or teachers as normal communication is affected by either shutting down or becoming aggressive and acting out.
- Children’s physical bodies are affected leading to more illnesses and absenteeism.
- The discovery of Mirror neurons in the brain and how they influence our behaviour suggests that trauma can be contagious. One traumatised child in a class can affect and disrupt a whole class.
It is further proven that traumatised individuals struggle to form healthy relationships and function in socially appropriate ways. Education may fail unless educators and parents learn to support traumatised learners by creating safe spaces in their classrooms.