Treasure Within Project

We were delighted to have been chosen as a recipient in the Economic and Social Fund from Limerick City and County Council. 

The funds received for Health and Wellbeing are being utilised to bring an innovative and meaningful project to the school community. 

The goal of The Treasure Within Project is to provide the school community with a space that is understanding, empathetic, and congruent with the children and adults within it. A space and community that wonders what has happened for the individuals rather than being preoccupied with what is wrong with them. A space that will provide the necessary ingredients to collaboratively create a Trauma Informed and Responsive Environment.

The therapeutic work of this project has a systemic focus understanding that it takes a village to raise a child. For children to grow and heal they need warmth, closeness, connection, acceptance and understanding from the people in their system (Solter, 1998; Ludy-Dobson & Perry, 2010). Growth and healing triumphs when school, home and therapy work cohesively (Treisman, 2021; Perry, 2006).

Prioritising building relationships and an integrated, cohesive community around the child is at the core of The Treasure Within Project.

Who can benefit from a Play Therapy Process?
Play therapy can support children with issues including but not limited to:

• Emotional difficulties such as anger, low self-esteem or anxiety
• Behavioural issues
• Suffered bereavement
• Have been bullied or are bullies
• Have suffered trauma
• Have witnessed domestic violence
• Have been subjected to abuse
• Come from divorced or separated home environments

Sessions
The child’s therapy process begins with intake sessions the parents/carers and teachers.
During these sessions the therapist will spend time getting to know the adults in the child’s
system and what they feel are the reasons why the child might benefit from play therapy.

The individual therapy sessions with the child will be weekly for 50 minutes. The duration of
the process will be 17 sessions including intake, review and closing sessions with
parent/carer and teacher.

Why Use Creative Group Work?
Group work is a collaboration of ideas and personalities to achieve a set of common goals. In any group each member is recognised as an integral part of the common interest. Each person brings a unique set of skills and values that not only need to be accepted but honoured and celebrated. When one person is working in a group so too are the other members of the group.

Children can learn about themselves and others in such a setting.

Creative group work is an active, experiential approach that allows children to explore feelings and interpersonal relationships. Creative group work involves the expressive arts – play, drama, music, dance, movement and art. It is used as a means of expression, finding common ground beyond language and culture. It can be a dynamic format for children to experiment creatively around a range of issues related to their personal and social development. It can provide physical release from their anxieties and frustrations –
emotions they cannot always put words to or find explanations for.

The sessions are based on creative and artistic activities, applied within an explicit developmental framework of “embodiment-projection-role” (Jennings 1990, 2004, 2014). EPR is appropriate as a working model for all groups of children because it is based on the general developmental stages that all children appear to go through (Jennings, 1999).

Over the duration of 6 sessions the children explore a common theme through games, relaxation exercises, movement – embodiment. Projection involves the use of creative art medium to express their understanding of the theme. This may involve individual, pair or whole group work. Finally, role involves the use of drama to further develop the theme.

Each of the activities are carefully chosen to reflect the main theme and overall aims of the programme while honouring the EPR framework. Each session begins and concludes with a similar warm-up and cool-down activity. This routine-based approach to beginnings and endings provides a boundary for the children promoting a sense of safety in the familiar. This model of therapeutic work allows for expression in a way that is far deeper that verbal communication as play is a child’s natural means of communication. Creativity and
resourcefulness is highly regarded as is the socio-dramatic play that occurs in an EPR group session. This approach draws upon the child’s capacity for constructing meaning, framing stories, and making sense of their world enriching the development of the individual and the group simultaneously (Kernan, M; 2007)

Opportunities Provided for Children Participating in Creative Group Work
– To express themselves beyond words
– To develop aspects of their self-esteem
– To explore their emotions and feelings
– To build friendships and group identity
– To develop trust of others
– To develop confidence in their bodies
– To understand and appreciate the feelings of others

Aims of Creative Group Work
– To develop recognition/sensitivity to each other’s needs.
– To encourage children to have a voice and format for expression.
– To extend the range of approaches to social and emotional learning.

Conclusion
The Treasure Within Project is committed to building trauma informed and responsive school communities. By providing the four project elements of 1) Training, 2) Individual Support, 3) Group Support and 4) Consultation the project supports the school community to:
• Realise the widespread impact of trauma
• Recognize how it impacts the child
• Respond in a way to allow children to feel heard and facilitate healing from trauma
• Resist re-traumatization by supporting the adults within the system making interactions trauma reducing rather than trauma inducing (SAMHSA, 2014; Treisman, 2021)