C:\PETER\Website\CHILDREN & PTSD.htm

Filmed experimental art project with Bosnian teenagers
in a Stockholm school, involving co-operation between
artist and psychologist - spring term 1995

Peter Tucker is an artist with many years experience of teaching children of all ages to paint, including children with various forms of trauma. Anka Rylander was born in Croatia, but has lived in Sweden for the last twenty years. She has long experience in councelling refugee children, particularly during the last few years in her work as a school psychologist with children from ex-Yugoslavia. Marius van Niekerk is a filmmaker who has co-operated with Tucker on projects relating to PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

The aim of the project described in this paper was to explore the feasibility of direct, classroom co-operation between art teacher and school psychologist in work with refugee children. The subject of the experiment was a group of 14 year-old Bosnian pupils in a introductory class in a school in Rågsved, a southern suburb of Stockholm. The pupils created pictures under the guidance of the artist, and these were used as a starting-point for group discussions initiated and led by the psychologist. These discussions revealed much of the depth and range of the mental problems faced by the pupils. The entire process was filmed by van Niekerk. His background as an ex-soldier, with war experience from the 1980’s in South Africa, helped in gaining the trust of the pupils. The film not only shows how a psychotherapist works in a group situation; it also represents a unique documentation of the usually well hidden concerns and anxieties of refugee children in Swedish schools today.

This paper describes the background, aims, and course of the project, the problems faced and results achieved. It concludes by discussing current methods of helping refugee children in Swedish schools, seen in the light of the insights gained during the project. Different possible strategies for the future are presented and discussed.

To see an exhibition of charcoal drawings made by some of the pupils involved in this project, click to Art Gallery - CHILDREN'S ART

For further information on trauma, click to THE SOLDIER AND PTSD

For a description of current projects with traumatised war refugees in Stockholm, click to: CURRENT WORK