I have just come back from 3 days in Udaipur where I was with a bunch of creative arts therapists and I was so inspired to meet them and hear of the work they do. I really feel like our world, the work we do, is like a blotch of colour. It’s hope in what seems like a rather dreary, scary (in many ways) world around us…

What a world we live in
Where fear turns into aggression, into hate, lynching
Where disappointment overwhelms to the point of killing
Where one exam result means life is over
Where jealousy strikes blow after blow
Where bodies shrink up behind computer screens and steering wheels…
2000 friends and I am still alone
What a world we live in

This world is not separate from us. It is us and it is ours. And we creative and expressive arts therapists – we have unique skills.
We have the ability to integrate the inner and outer worlds. To bring groups together… to play, to create. We have the skills to see vulnerability as power, uncertainty as opportunity. We have the tools to transform polarities into spectrums. And passivity into generativity. If people can create, the can change themselves, they can change the world.

Breathing, grounding, moving.

Art, music, movement, drama is primal. Basic as breath itself, before language, before group affiliation, before cultural markers.

As the senseless destruction bears down upon us.

What is our responsibility?

To me, our inner and outer worlds are deeply connected. The personal and social are connected. The private and political are connected. So the work we do in the room, in that NGO, in that school or hospital directly translates into a relationship, a family, an organization, an institution the community. It spreads like ripples in an ocean, gaining momentum and making waves, affecting lives.

We are significant, the work we do is profound.

So what is our responsibility?

These values of democracy, secularism, equality, diversity, ecological conservation. That seems to be dissolving around us, how do we hold them in our work? Not necessarily as activists or with direct engagement (though some of us may choose to do that). But in a deeply internalised way. Perhaps they can inform the way we work?

In the myths, stories, mythologies, motifs, symbols, and objects we make available to our clients. Where are those from? What idea of India do those represent and perpetuate?

Perhaps we can ourselves be better informed about caste and gender and religion and sexuality and language so that we include all aspects of our clients and not be blinded to the worlds outside our realities.

This is the promise of the creative arts therapies because words aren’t always adequate, activism doesn’t look inside and spirituality sometimes doesn’t look outside.

This is our promise.

I don’t know yet how we can bring these values into our work. For a long time, I thought democracy, secularism, equality, diversity and ecological conservation belonged to some other domain, not therapy. Slowly though I am beginning to realize that they can exist everywhere and it’s a part of our responsibility that they exist in our work.

But I don’t yet fully know-how. I invite you to look into it and if it sounds ok, I invite you to question with me, to enquire and to figure out how to bring these values into your work. And then let’s share. let’s share with one another. Because as the world isolates and shrinks we must expand and include.

With a promise and a responsibility.

A promise, that makes me so glad and so proud of the work we do. And a responsibility that makes me reflexive and critical (in a good way).

I welcome you into our fold.

Congratulations and I look forward to us sharing and working together.