The rationale for the Arts in the Trauma Healing Process (ATHP) training

Addressing the impact of trauma is fast becoming one of the most urgent human needs in the world. Trauma isolates people from one another and God, and so constitutes a significant underlying barrier to Scripture engagement and shalom.

About the ATHP Basic Training

This basic training course (Cycle 1) teaches a holistic and interactive approach to engaging Scripture and relevant arts in the healing process for people who suffer from the mental, emotional, and spiritual effects of trauma.

The course combines biblical truths with basic mental health principles expressed in ways that can be easily applied in many contexts.

Participants learn to address both beliefs and emotions damaged by trauma in their own lives and in the lives of others through participatory learning methods as well as through engaging with their fellow participants in a small group context.

In particular, this course will emphasize the importance of expressive arts in trauma healing.

Participants will understand and be able to articulate and demonstrate the role, value, and effectiveness of using relevant arts in trauma healing from a historical and contemporary perspective.

Participants will be able to promote emotional and spiritual healing in traumatized communities through the use of local expressive arts existing in those communities.

Expressive arts: Music, dance/movement, drama, visual arts, oral verbal arts, etc.

After completing this course, participants will be able to:

• Apply knowledge of the scope and impact of trauma to their own personal and/or work experience.
• Create basic, culturally appropriate approaches for trauma healing.
• Create appropriate materials and facilitation approaches for basic trauma care in a healing group.
• Create relevant research designs and contextualized trauma healing approaches for empowering communities in discovering effective uses of their art forms in the trauma healing process.

https://www.wycliffe.sg/ath-faqs