A tool for healing.

Video cameras and computer editing systems are not readily accessible to people who have been or are at risk of being homeless. Through a grant from the Medical Health and Research Association of New York, I was hired to provide video art therapy groups and individual sessions to Housing Works Inc. clients though their Mental Health Services department. The client population that received services consisted of adult men who were fifty years of age and older and women of any age who were living with HIV/AIDS. The initial video art therapy groups at Housing Works included Women with Cameras and the 50 & Over Club (a men's group). Both groups were formed in August 2006 and ended in February 2007.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Some of the goals of the groups were to help clients increase their well being through improved psychosocial functioning, socialization, skills development, and goal setting. The method developed to achieve these goals in the video art therapy groups was to help clients create an individual video project in a group setting. During individual sessions, clients edited their video footage into a finished video piece of 20 minutes or less, which was then burned onto a DVD with the assistance of this art therapist.

In addition to living with HIV/AIDS, many of the clients had suffered numerous losses as children, such as, separation from family, sexual trauma, and witnessing domestic violence, which resulted in trust and relational difficulties. Some clients had experienced threats or acts of violence in their environment or while incarcerated prior to their HIV/AIDS diagnosis. Many clients had difficulty making choices and keeping appointments; some had histories of substance abuse. They suffered from depression, anxiety, and grief, which caused them to isolate. Many of the clients were preoccupied by outside stressors, such as, housing needs, family issues, legal issues, and health-related concerns.

At the beginning and end of each session, participants were asked to make a "feelings drawing." They were asked to be quiet and check their physical, mental, and spiritual states. Their task was to visually express on paper what they were feeling in the moment, for as Vija S. Lusebrink notes, "Art therapy focuses predominantly on visual and somatosensory information; that is, how images and their expression reflect emotional experiences and how the emotional experiences affect thoughts and behaviors." (1) Supporting others did not come naturally to some of the participants. This was expressed by group members talking over each other or having difficulty maintaining focus on other participants' projects. As the group progressed, however, clients began to utilize the drawing process as soon as they entered the therapy room, indicating that they were in touch with feelings that they wanted to process. The drawings and related feelings were shared within the group.

The video projects were the core of the sessions. Multiple tasks and experiences related to the creation of the video project provided stimulation and motivation. Clients learned how to set up a tripod, how to load videotape into the camera, and how to set up a wireless microphone system. The video projects provided opportunities for the therapist to observe a client's ability to interact within the group and their ability to learn and to retain information and to resource themselves and others.

Due to a culture of sporadic attendance and outside distractions, the groups took months to form before they could be closed to new members. Once closed, no additional participants were added unless an opening was created by someone leaving the group. The closed groups ran approximately six months. The groups met twice weekly for 1 1/2 hours, until the editing process began. Then both group and individual sessions were held weekly.

In his book The Developing Mind (1999), Daniel J. Siegel points out that "Research suggests that emotion serves as a central organizing process within the brain. In this way, an individual's abilities to organize emotions--a product, in part, of earlier attachment relationships--directly shapes the ability of the mind to integrate experience and to adapt to future stressors." (2) Trauma stories could be disorganizing and cause a client to detach from their emotions. For example, when clients told trauma stories to the group, they began to show visible signs of becoming overwhelmed. Their speech became rapid, their speaking volume increased, and they began to perspire. These were all indications that their entire system was becoming overwhelmed or retraumatized.

Siegel goes on to say that:

   [...] some interpersonal experiences result in the mind's becoming
   unable to form a cohesive and adaptive state. In this situation, the
   mind enters a chaotic, disorganized state of activations lacking in
   cohesion. The non-cohesive characteristic of such a state may itself
   actually become a trait of the individual. Disorganization or
   disorientation becomes a repeated pattern of activation or state of
   mind. (3)

The video project was held as an organizing structure for the client's trauma story. When a client showed signs of becoming overwhelmed, they could be gently interrupted and brought back from the trauma story into present reality by being asked a relevant question, such as, How much of the story did they want to share on tape? What part of the story was important to the overall goal of the piece? How much time did they want to devote to this part of the story? Later, in playback, clients could see themselves on videotape, which helped them to become sensitized to their own emotional states.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The video art therapy groups offered clients something tangible, the creation of their own video project. During group, they brainstormed ideas. They received feedback from group members. They became producers/directors of their project, utilizing the emotional and technical support of the other participants. Clients were responsible for the content and aesthetics of their project. During each session, additional training and review took place as needed in a relaxed environment. The portable video studio was equipped with three consumer-grade video cameras, tripods, various light reflectors, and a wireless microphone system. Each participant was given a blank 60-minute miniDV tape on which to record their raw footage. Editing took place during individual sessions where the client was introduced to and gradually became more proficient at using video editing software. The video editing system consisted of one laptop, numerous hard drives, a DVD burner, portable speakers, and various cables and supplies.

The Women with Cameras group included six women between the ages of thirty-two and sixty-one. In this group, Toya shared her feelings about losing contact with her granddaughter since her son died of medical complications several years prior. (4) She was upset, sad, and frustrated. As she worked to identify the scope of her video project, she became discouraged because she could not come up with an idea. Then, as a side note, she said, "I should make a video for my granddaughter, Tiffany." The idea resonated with the group. They echoed her idea back to her, providing distance as she listened to the other women discuss it. The idea gained relevance for her as she felt the emotion of it. The emotional content of her project helped her to sustain focus on the project when many outside influences competed for her attention.

At the beginning of one group session, many complaints surfaced, some barely audible. Two women who had been engaged in an agitation prior to group were setting up a wireless microphone system that had two parts, a transmitter and a receiver. In order to assure a complete audio signal, the women had to communicate with each other. The opportunity was used to point out that their silence had been broken by their new roles as technicians. Laughter broke out and tension was released. Liz Hartz and Lynette Thick, in their 2005 article, "Art therapy strategies to raise self-esteem in female juvenile offenders," write, "[A]rt therapy has the ability to minimize resistance and offer many avenues for positive identity development." (5) This interaction was later brought up by one of the women during group termination when she recommitted her friendship to the woman with whom she had been upset. What appeared to be an insignificant moment provided a sense of pride because of the favorable result.

Sonya, another woman in the Women with Cameras group, made a video titled the Early Warning Signs of Domestic Violence. She requested that a group member videotape her story about being in an abusive relationship. Sonya recounted her denial when domestic arguments escalated into violence, when she forgave repeated behaviors, and experienced the devastating loss of her children. The abuse story brought up early childhood trauma as well. She spoke of being raised in a household where men had power over women. She was abandoned by her mother and never knew her father. Her story was intense and emotional. During the taping some of the women who were not providing technical assistance drew pictures to keep themselves calm, a technique they learned in the group. At the next session, the group watched Sonya's footage with her, listening to make sure that what she intended was recorded. A second screening and discussion of the material addressed technical issues including camera movement and audio quality, in order to improve skill and develop new ideas as well as to enhance their own videos.

Therapeutically, each time Sonya watched the recording of her trauma story, she was able to integrate bits and pieces of it. In addition to viewing her footage, she also logged her material. This helped her to keep track of the recordings on her videotape and also provided another opportunity to engage with her narrative. Prior to editing, a paper edit was made to organize the assets of the video project, including video recordings, audio recordings, and still images. In the edit suite, the paper edit helped the producer/director to organize the flow of the project.

As Sonya interacted with her domestic violence narrative during editing sessions, she identified in bullet points the warning signs that she spoke of in her recording. It occurred to her that the overriding problem in her life had been her low self-worth and lack of self-confidence. While editing, she recognized her struggle and how she is no longer the same person. She was strengthened by the discovery. Screening, reshooting, editing, and processing feelings that came at various stages of interacting with her story were opportunities for healing to take place.

The 50 & Over Club utilized the same structure as the women's group. The men enjoyed taking the cameras outdoors to shoot in the street, weather permitting. The outdoor experiences helped the men expand their worldview through the act of looking. Through the lens, they saw familiar streets in a new way.

Andre's videotape included footage he accidentally captured when he thought the camera was turned off. When he screened the footage in group, he said he felt sick from watching the raw footage recorded from a dangling camera. A discussion followed about how it feels to be out of control in one's life. Andre decided to use the accidental footage and combine it with his audio recording to recount a traumatic experience he had as a child. The unintentional footage, edited to the trauma story, helped Andre to express his internal experience.

The video projects provided an opportunity for clients to stay present in the moment while working with personal material from the past. Opportunities existed to reflect, share, check realities, and develop a sense of pride in accomplishments that took place within the therapy groups. Clients worked on small parts of their projects while maintaining a connection to the larger piece. They learned how to organize their thoughts slowly, as their abilities increased. The therapeutic environment contained their thoughts, feelings, responses, and ideas from their outer environment as well those pertaining to the video projects. Some clients reported that by the end of the video art therapy group their focus on exhaustive everyday struggles, such as, regaining custody of children, ending abusive relationships, securing housing, and managing ongoing health issues, had been redirected into their projects. Relief, albeit temporary, may provide awareness of an internal state that could be referenced in the future.

NOTES (1.) Vija B. Lusebrink, "Art therapy and the brain: An attempt to understand the underlying processes of art expression in therapy," Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association Vol. 21, no. 3 (2004), 129. (2.) Daniel J. Siegel, The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact To Shape Who We Are (New York: Guilford Press, 1999), 4. (3.) Ibid., 211. (4.) All names/participant information has been changed to protect their privacy. (5.) Liz Hartz and Lynette Thick, "Art therapy strategies to raise self-esteem in female juvenile offenders: A comparison of art psychotherapy and art as therapy approaches," Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association Vol. 22, no. 2 (2005), 73.

BARBARA (BASIA) MOSINSKI, ATR, MFA, is an artist, art therapist, and video art therapy consultant. She is adjunct faculty at the School of Visual Arts in New York City in the graduate art therapy department. She can be reached at [e-mail].