Testimonials

 

in gratitude

overview

faculty

apply

alumni

“I joined the FECAT program at a very crucial part of my life. The program helped me unlearn and relearn a lot about myself. I saw myself embracing my most vulnerable side and coming out more aware and accepting of my strengths and weaknesses.”

“Unlearn, Relearn, Embrace, Accept”

“This one year of journey with FECAT allowed me to touch depths that I could never access before, a journey of moving and being moved. The part that really stood out for me was the experiential learning process, which really allowed me to slow down, witness, listen and be. The presence of the group created that safe container where I could allow myself to be vulnerable and hold myself during the processes which also brought up a lot. The group processes were particularly significant as it opened up the aspects of boundaries and safety, to reflect on and even redefine what they mean to me in the context of shared spaces. The parallel journey of personal and professional helped me ground myself and evolve in my practices in both. One of the most significant parts of this journey for me was connecting with and realising the potential in my body which I have never experienced before this way. It has been transformative and I felt powerful within my body. Now I’m willing to go deeper with the resources that I have been able to gather and touch upon through this course and I feel a lot more supported and equipped to do that.”

“Connecting with and realising the potential in my body”

I did the FECAT program the first year it was offered and it was one of the best decisions I ever made, the course changed my life in many ways. I grew tremendously as a human and as a therapist. The journey through the year is held beautifully by trained facilitators and therapists and gave me new and exciting ways to engage with people and myself.

“Life-altering”

FECAT was a life changer for me. It was the unexpected answer to a longing of my soul to find purpose and meaning, and discover my life’s calling.  I am grateful for the emphasis on personal work and experiential learning during the course which deepened my conviction of the tremendous healing and transformative power of the Expressive Arts.

Transformative power of the Expressive Arts

It has been a liberating, intense and extremely valuable experience

The FECAT program has been a process of self-discovery and an empowering journey towards embracing personal choices in an unapologetic, progressive and empathetic manner. Whether you choose to be a therapist or not, the life skills learnt, facilitate both personal and professional growth. Experiential and theoretical, with practical field internships and guided supervisions, the program offers a secure space to discover parts of the self and the potential they offer.

Joining the FECAT course was one of the better decisions of my life. As a performer, I had been interested in how improvisation reflects each person’s deeper self and the course helped me to syncretize with a larger understanding of the human psyche. It also helped me revisit and reshuffle my personal life and provided me with a deeper awareness of who I am and how I function, as a large part of the course is dedicated to personal therapy, and that is definitely a lifetime gain for anyone.

“Helped me to syncretize with a larger understanding of the human psyche”

“FECAT training was my first ever course on the bodywork. It was like an unfolding of my own self with gentleness and care. My connection to my own self deepened. Seeing my own shadows for the first time wasn’t easy but the safe container of my cohorts and the trainers helped me through. It felt like a new version of my own self emerging towards the end of my journey. Internships helped me in offering safe spaces to my clients and supervision sustained me through the entire process”

“Establishing a deep connection with the self”

The FECAT program creates a space for the deep exploration of the healing potential of the arts. The focus is on personally experiencing this first to understand how the arts affect us and help us grow. It is a rigorous course that gives a lot of importance to being present for a client, following ethics in therapy and creatively using the different art modalities. As a therapist, it has helped me add richness and expansiveness to my work

“The value of just being”

The FECAT program led me to a journey where I learnt the value of being and the nuances of the human condition. The beauty and struggle in self-work through the arts helped me forward professionally as a therapist and personally – in solitude and in relationships.

“Empowering exploration”

My training experience with FECAT has been life-changing. The course not only provided me with tools that helped me become a therapist but also facilitated a beautiful inward journey of self-discovery. With the help of some of the most knowledgeable facilitators, this course has empowered me by helping me discover my own strengths, weaknesses and most importantly, self-care. If I could, I would do the course all over again, because there is one thing I have learned here and strongly believe in – You can never know enough about yourself. There is always more room for exploration and it is a journey of a lifetime, with yourself.

It was a journey of finding Me

Joining the FECAT family was a life changer for me. It was a deep journey of unraveling, a journey of facing my most vulnerable self, of growth, self-empowerment, change and renewed faith in my strengths.

The year I did FECAT was the most significant year of my life thus far and I felt myself transform into someone more aware, accepting, assertive and creative. It gave my life meaning and led me to work with children and young adults to facilitate growth and positive change through the power of the arts in psychotherapy – going deeper, beyond words. The journey continues and there is no looking back.

A journey of embodiment, vulnerability, strength, and self-discovery

FECAT shows an inimitable way to get in touch with oneself through the arts. The course pulls away the attention from outcome to set an example far different from the world out there. This person-centered aspect ensures every student gets something out of it, whether their intention is to become an arts-based therapist or not.

The learning can, in fact, be converted into a lifelong pursuit

“Gratitude is my word association with FECAT”

I am an artist and I paint for a living. However, when I joined the FECAT for me it was about finding meaning for the art I do and create art that comes from a space of authentic expression. I can vouch and say this with complete sincerity that in India there is no other place that can offer a course like FECAT at the smart studio. There is no other place that can offer authentic movement, sand-play, dance, theatre, psychodrama, art, music, Laban and couselling skills together in the way FECAT does. So it then becomes a gambit of Expressive Art tools, mediums, and methodologies under one umbrella that can be used in a therapeutic space.

To feel, sense, explore and express myself in ways that bring me closer to who I am and knowing myself in a whole new light. The course has changed me, changed how I feel about myself, my art, my relationship with myself and others. It’s like going within first and then seeking outside because knowing myself is to know another and there is no bypassing to that I believe. To do my own inner work first, so as to heal another.”

The FECAT course at SMArT was a journey of self-reflection and self-discovery for me. The whole course was structured in a way that it felt like I was peeling off layers of myself, little by little, and discovering nooks and corners in my personality that were unknown and untapped. The focus on the self helped me become aware of some of my deepest fears and the ways I could work on them. The tools that this course equipped me with are for a lifetime; tools for personal therapy and self-care. Being a theatre artist myself, the discovery of the myriad ways in which Expressive Arts can be a vehicle of connecting with the self, was a wonderful discovery of additional dimensions that I can traverse within me.

The deep insights gleaned from this course are immeasurably valuable and have been the bedrock, in my practice as an Expressive Arts Therapist