1975: Creative approach to overcoming trauma

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Tags: Arts, centenary-edition

Suzanne Staal, BSocWk, MMH

Helping people deal with their past and enjoy their future can be a difficult process, and for Suzanne Staal, working things out through art is a useful approach.

Suzanne Staal

After graduating from a Master of Mental Health at UQ in 2008, Ms Staal now works with refugee children and their families to help them overcome trauma experienced in their home countries, often from the result of war.

“Often there are no words to express the trauma the client has experienced. The ability to express ideas, stories and feelings in a non-verbal format is very useful to such people. In addition, they often have limited or no English, so a non-verbal way of communicating is particularly helpful,” she said.

Ms Staal said art therapy allowed her to combine her social work skills with her interest in art.

“It combined my love of working with people with a medium that allowed clients to work creatively. Therapeutically, the art is particularly useful because it is a primary process which taps the unconscious directly allowing hidden or partly hidden material to be brought to the conscious,” she said.

“I love working with families from different cultures and I really enjoy the fact that it is a relatively new field which provides ample opportunities for experimentation with different approaches and ways of working.”

According to Ms Staal, art therapy is also a useful tool for “observing family dynamics in a present context” which “can be more revealing and useful therapeutically than talking about what has been happening in the past tense”.

“Children are often natural artists, so the creative activities are fun and relaxing, and able to be used in an uninhibited way,” she said.

“The art and play provide the child with non-verbal activities that reveal issues the child is having difficulty mastering, and also what they find unspeakable.

“The use of art in communicating troubling issues externalises the problem insomuch as the problem is separated from the individual and is able to be looked at as a separate entity.”

Ms Staal said language barriers formed the most challenging part of her job.

“The use of interpreters and an understanding of the cultural background of the client adds a complexity to the work that counselling someone from one’s own culture does not usually have,” she said.

“The greatest reward is in offering interventions that can be utilised by the client in order to support a more successful settlement into their new environment.”

By Amanda Sproule

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