Teaching in South Africa has become one of the more challenging professions. Teachers do not only have to deal with a complex curriculum but also with a host of non-academic problems, including hungry, abused, sick, ill-disciplined, orphaned and abandoned learners.
This results in fatigued, demoralised and frustrated teachers who, in many instances, vent their anger on the learners instead of helping them. Experts blame this on the lack of skills to cope with such challenges.
Qualified art therapist Hayley Berman says teachers need to be trained to deal with these challenges. ‘If teachers are traumatised, there will be no teaching, and if learners are troubled, there will be no learning.â€
Berman is the founder of the Art Therapy Centre in Rosebank, Gauteng. The centre’s primary objective is to empower teachers and guardians with the skills and knowledge to cope with children who have suffered abuse, trauma and bereavement or who battle with remedial, behavioural and development-related problems.
The Art Therapy Centre was initially established to help victims of apartheid brutalities as well as survivors of the bloody political and civil violence in the 1990s in Katlehong and Thokoza in Ekurhuleni.
Most of these were youth who belonged to the notorious self-defence units as well as educators, parents and children, who needed to be integrated into their communities.
But after the new political set up, the project had to be adapted to deal with new social dynamics where HIV/Aids has presented a challenge.
Berman said people who have been hurt emotionally want a serene environment to heal and deal with their situation. And the centre provides this ideal space so that trauma-stricken people can articulate and process their emotions.
Said Berman: ‘Art therapy is a material process that uses a variety of mediums such as drawing, paintingÂ, clay work and collage. Each material evokes different feelings and the work created reflects the unconscious forces that shape a person’s life. [These] images may elicit associations, desires, fantasies, hopes, dreams and memories.â€
She said art therapy is suitable for the South African context as ‘it transcends language and cultural barriers†as well as ‘promotes positive changeâ€.
Berman said the Art Therapy Centre aims to create a pool of art counsellors who would operate at schools and in various social structures such as churches, hospitals and prisons. And, more importantly, the centre wants to ensure that there is a continuous availability and sus- tainability of counsellors.
Berman said: ‘Our [long-term] vision is to set up art counselling resources in every community in Gauteng and to expand these services nationally.â€
To realise that dream, they have started offering two years of training in community art counselling ‘that is in the process of being Seta accreditedâ€. There is also an introductory training programme for foundation phase educators and other professionals.
Ntombi Sangweni is a community art counsellor trainee doing her second year of training at the centre. She interfaces with guardians and teachers and sometimes with children. Trained as a visual artist at Funda Community Centre, where she learned how to use art as an effective and versatile tool, Sangweni took to the course like a duck to water.
‘I enjoy art because it does not limit you but helps to expand and enrich one’s horizons. For children in our context, I find it particularly useful as it enables them to share their views by simply painting instead of verbalising them, which can be difficult for them,†she said. ‘After they have drawn or painted, we then get them to analyse and discuss in detail their work and, in most instances, their work mirrors how they feel.â€
The project enjoys the support of the Gauteng department of education, which funds interventions at schools after death, trauma and for those at risk such as HIV/Aids orphans. The department of arts and culture funds the centre’s two-year arts community counselling training programme.
The centre also operates in Katlehong, Thokoza and Thembisa, helping children at risk and there are projects based mainly at after-care centres. Children aged five to eight attend therapy sessions once a week.