A trio of experienced art therapists have launched an open studio in north London for the Jewish community to explore their emotions in a welcoming and safe space.
Yafit Nahari, Simona Rotman Shats and Moshe Teller, who are Israeli but based in the UK, are also welcoming London-based Israelis to the sessions, which are free of charge and include art materials.
Called Studio Patuach - the Hebrew term for “open studio” - it is based on a therapeutic community model that helps individuals to access creativity as a way of expressing difficult feelings and was first used in the Second World War when artists went into psychiatric hospitals with materials to create art with the patients.
“Community art projects can really help build empathy, resilience and facilitate an open dialogue,” said Nahari, who is a child and adult arts psychotherapist. She has seen it help Israelis to connect with hope. “A lot of artwork at the moment focuses on the horrific acts committed by Hamas, but in the studio, so far we've managed to see a lot of hope and longing for a better future and just connecting with the imagination.”
The therapists had seen a similar model implemented on the Israeli kibbutzim, where people were able to drop in and create artwork using a variety of materials.
All the therapists are qualified. One works at CAMHS (the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) and another for Jewish Care.
Art therapy is a way for people to channel their emotions from October 7 (Studio Patuach MosheTeller)
The three came together when they were part of an emergency call service, staffed by 40 therapists, offering urgent conversational support over the phone to Israelis affected by the war against Hamas.
At Studio Patuach, the therapists provide oil pastels, crayons, paint, and magazines for collaging. Resouces also include chalk pastels, watercolours, natural materials, modelling clay, craft supplies and mixed media paper.The professionals can suggest artistic ideas, but the session is not a directed activity - the therapists’ primary role is to hold the group and make sure that everyone is managing their feelings.
Nahari said: “It's a very informal, easy-going, welcoming and encouraging environment. It's non-judgmental and stress-free. You're given space to reflect on anything that you'd like to in relation to the conflict and the war and just to feel safe and nourished through art-making.
“The art is a way of putting inner feelings onto outer forms. The hope is that it will enable them to channel whatever they're experiencing, and then for everyone to share their art as a group so they can see how this experience manifests for other people as well. [Art] depicts what often cannot be put into words. It really is very powerful.”
The first drop-in session took place late last month and enabled an intimate group of five to process the anxiety and uncertainty they had experienced since the atrocities of October 7
The groups are being facilitated in Hebrew and English and children are welcome to come along with their parents or carers.
Studio Pituach art therapists, Yafit Nahari, Moshe Teller and Simona Rotman Shats
“It was very gentle, and people were delighted by the whole setting,” said Nahari, who is also a clinical supervisor and EMDR practitioner. “They said it enabled them to be, to connect with the art and some form of release and take their minds off the worries in general. There's something about the artwork that allows them to express their frustration, anxiety, but also to connect with some kind of hopeful result for the whole situation which tallies with positive psychology.”
The next open studio is scheduled for Monday 11 December from 11am to 1pm, and there is another planned for 17 December. No artistic background is required for the activity, and while creativity can be oppressed by severe trauma, therapists say that it is “always there. Creativity is within us all. It's just about reaching in and allowing yourself to express it.”
Our role is to help people bring it out and honour the imagination in the face of adversity.”
Nahari said that shortly after the Hamas terrorist attacks “we mainly saw shock”.
“What we're facing now is a different way of processing because people have been sitting with this trauma for a long time. The ones who reach out to us now are experiencing more of a secondary trauma. They’re quite isolated, and that's why we felt that group therapy would be extremely helpful for people to come together and hear each other's stories and support each other and possibly even form networks after the group activity.”
Other benefits of the group experience are that they “provide a safe, nurturing, accepting environment in which painful feelings and experiences can be shared. Groups allow people to speak the unspeakable.”
They are currently receiving enquiries mainly from women. “You see women whose husbands or boyfriends are serving, and on the news, you hear about soldiers being killed every day. Living with that kind of anxiety, especially with young children at home, is very challenging for many women.”
To register, email studiopatuach.uk@gmail.com or call 07404 659586.
