Over the last several weeks I have been taking a step back and looking at the therapeutic essence of the work my co-interns and I have been doing with Art and Spirituality, Common Art, and Café Emmanuel. As I look at the big, all-encompassing picture, I am able to see many similarities. However, the one I feel most drawn to and inspired by is community and the support around that community which we have formed together.
In a music therapy course I took last fall we were taught a song: “Come to the circle, bring what you have to bring, and take what you need.” As I allowed my experiences to stew in my mind, I was drawn to the image of making vegetable soup with the culinary artists at Common Art. This image of the vegetable stew is both literal and symbolic, in my eyes. We came together to make the soup, only able to use the ingredients we had on hand. We were able to create something that was much more than the sum of its parts. What the artists experienced was at once a creative outlet to express their connection and contribute to the group, and at the same time a filling meal to keep them warm as well as nourished. By the end, I felt all individuals involved had been nourished in body, soul and spirit.
The same is true for the women at Art and Spirituality. They come together for the opportunity to create a gift for others that allows them to be connected to something bigger than their immediate prison environment. As we come together and create cards, they actively come to the circle. For an hour and a half they are empowered to decide what, if anything, is discussed, what they create, and for whom they create it. Some of the women take that time to decompress and use coloring as meditation while others use it as an opportunity to socialize with individuals they don’t get to see often from other units. They take what they need in that moment and that is the essence of what we are working to achieve.
Moreover, during the Café Arts component of Café Emmanuel the seniors who join us take time out of their schedules to come together and express themselves through movement, art, writing, and discussion. Providing a group check-in at the beginning of each group offers an invitation for all group members to express themselves and verbalize not only how they are but also what they need from the group. For some that may be feeling truly heard in conversation or perhaps moving their bodies in a way that is approachable and modified to their needs.
The Emmanuel community has provided the interns with this same opportunity. As we come to the circle of the Emmanuel community and its programs we bring ourselves and the skills we are practicing. In turn, your programs allow us to grow and glean the tools we need to become better clinicians.
–Bekah Woolf