It is so gratifying to be pulling these stories together to share with you! In this issue, we have two examples of people who are sharing Touch Drawing with children. Mohammad Mukhamair writes of his work with traumatized children in Gaza and Katrina Plato shares her week-long Touch Drawing class for children at Penland School of Art in North Carolina. The extreme contrast of two these settings illuminate the core connection that can be made with Touch Drawing no matter who or where you are.

I recently had my own enlivening experience of the accessibility of Touch Drawing. I was invited to present the process at a Kaiser Institute Program in Intuition that was oriented to professionals in hospital administration – CEOs, administrators, MD’s and lawyers. Most had no background or interest in art. The people at Kaiser expressed great faith in the process, in that they requested that I have the group create Inner Portraits for one another. Drawings created not for the self but intuitively for a partner. I usually do that only with a group that has been Touch Drawing for days. I agreed to take a leap of faith and was truly gratified to witness how deeply people tapped into their intuitive selves. They created images for their partners whose intuitive power could not be denied. Each person received images of insight and wisdom from their drawing partner.

I left this retreat with a glow of inspiration. During a time when there appears to be so much contraction in our culture, I feel the light of vibrant forces moving beneath surface appearances. Now more than ever, we are each needed to offer whatever we can to the renewal of life and love on this planet. I encourage you to step forward and do you part in whatever way you feel called!

Last fall Mukti Khanna invited me to introduce Touch Drawing to two Palestinian therapists from Gaza who were in Olympia, WA for a trauma treatment training program. It was very moving to connect with them, and we sent them home with a suitcase full of Touch Drawing supplies. One of the therapists, Mohammad, and I have maintained an active correspondence since then, as much as can be expected from someone in a war zone. Sometimes he hears a blast out the window while he is writing. Sometimes roads are blocked off and he can't get to the clinic where he works with the children.


I was born and raised in Rafah Refugee Camp in the southern area of Gaza Strip, and got my university degree in psychology. I have been working as a psychologist in Gaza Community Mental Health Program since 1998. This is non-profit, non- governmental organization established in 1990 to provide comprehensive community mental health services to the population of Gaza Strip, including therapy, training and research. It’s one of the leading mental health organizations in Palestine. We provide urgent psychological intervention for thousands of children and families experiencing severe organized violence and trauma.

Being a Palestinian Psychologist assisting traumatized children is a very painful task. The context of work is a nation that has been living a collective experience of humiliation and oppression for 57 years. Ongoing trauma destroys people’s sense of safety and keeps them helpless. It reinforces their core assumption of injustice in the world. Many people are vying for martyrdom and eternal life. But there is no military solution for this bloody conflict. Some day they will realize that power is the ability to love not the ability to kill and destroy.

A large part of my work is with children to help them imagine a different future other than being a martyr, given the desire to try to do something in the current situation. This generation of children has lost the feeling of safety, which is a basic condition for a normal process of emotional, physical and social growth. In my center I try to create a safe environment in the play therapy room, by using different kinds of expressive art therapy. I consider it a very powerful model in dealing with people afflicted by trauma. I try to apply some tools in the daily work with children to help them experience the world in different way, rather than be occupied with violent fantasy, and mixed feelings of fear and aggression.

Touch Drawing helps the children externalize and express their thoughts and emotions in a creative way. They can imagine and create images and draw their wishes in a very smooth way on the paper. I can feel their feelings of pleasure and self control. It’s very fun, pleasurable, and allows them to express many feelings. It fascinates the children as they feel much control and ability to change.

      

This is a picture of a 12 year old boy. He suffered from post traumatic reaction and depression. Six months ago the Israeli Army invaded his village. Several people were killed and injured. He witnessed the event and experienced a lot of fear and sadness.

You can contact Mohammad Mukhamair at ybna1948@yahoo.com

Mukti and I feel that it would be of great mutual benefit for Mohammad to attend the International Expressive Art Therapy Association conference in San Francisco this March. The theme of this conference is Peace and Transformation through Expressive Arts. He is on the front lines of this work as he helps traumatized children to envision other paths than martyrdom.

We are looking for funding and support both to keep him stocked with Touch Drawing supplies and to bring him to the conference. IEATA (www.ieata.org) has agreed to be his official sponsor, but does not have financial resources to cover any of his costs. If you would like to make a donation of money, air miles or help in any other way, please contact me at deborah@touchdrawing.com.

In July I taught a one week, half days Touch Drawing class for children ages 7 to 12 at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. Nine children attended the class. None of the children knew one another, but by the end of the week strong bonds had formed. This was one of the most enjoyable and exciting classes I have taught.

The outline of the day consisted of gathering to draw for an hour and a half, breaking for a half hour to play and eat snacks, returning to title drawings and choosing favorites to share with the group. The last half hour or more we would explore ways of using the drawings like making tissue stained glass art for the windows, or adding color and mounting.

The first day of class while introducing the medium I encouraged them to allow the story of who they were to come out in their drawings. These children drew with enthusiasm every day, and each day more came to the surface. One girl drew an image of a hand with spiraling lines over 30 times only using black ink trying to achieve the 'perfect' look without distraction of color. She knew what she wanted. She was patient and determined, and felt relieved when she drew the one she had been waiting to emerge.

One day it felt safe to ask if the children believed they had guardian angels. All the children raised their hands. I showed them an example of drawing faces. One boy drew over 20 different faces of his guardians. Two girls began doing joint portraits, and drew together using feet, elbows and hands.

The last day, I congratulated the children for not holding back. They had drawn feelings and angels and other faces and played with symbols and textures and spontaneous images. They had even drawn from their stuck places. They delighted in sharing their drawings with one another. One boy said, " I liked learning how to draw a new way." Another said, "It was a chance to express my feelings about what's inside me." One of the girls had drawn a mother swan with babies. She said she learned things about herself through her drawings, like how her mother and grandmother take care of her. They all said they wanted to return next summer.


Sharing Touch Drawing with children was an experiment for me, one I'd like to try again! I began with so many questions. I learned, again, to trust the process and let it lead. It was a great learning field.


Katrina Plato is a Registered Art Therapist, potter and educator. She lives in North Carolina. sensuousearth@yahoo.com

A ‘Loving Walk’ to Wholeness and Healing

Candy A. Magno

This article traces the history and genesis of the use of the SoulCards in the Philippines through the Healing-Quest project. I will share the lives of real people who have been touched by their gentle and loving wisdom.

During the last decades of the century people from all walks of life and different cultural backgrounds have witnessed the ‘rebirthing’ of an age-old mystic tradition of the healing process. My second near-death experience in 1998 was a significant turning point in my life. I realized that I had a great responsibility to share the message of a very beautiful world and a loving light waiting for us all. I knew I would have to find the courage to launch the Healing-Quest, an alternative, non-traditional counseling project. The Healing-Quest was envisioned to be a meditative activity and a ‘prayer in motion’ that people can turn to when traditional modes of therapy have failed to meet their needs.

I felt that seekers must be given the chance to be active co-creators of their own destiny and their stories should be listened to and heard. I was searching for inspirational and healing instruments that would give the project an authentic person-centered environment that is interactive, non-judgmental and compassionate.

In the year 2000, I came across the SoulCards. As with any divinatory system and psychological instrument, the rule of thumb is to try it first on oneself before trying it on others. I played with the cards and assessed their ‘energies’ to see if they were friendly with me.

I concentrated on present issues or concerns. I got the cards that ‘seemingly’ answered my questions. I repeated the process until I exhausted all possible uses for them. I knew I had found a “new friend”. My union with the SoulCards had begun. Since then, my SoulCards have become a main stay in all the counseling and journeys that I do with the ‘friends’ of the project since I introduced them in 2000.

Through the SoulCards, the clients are encouraged to reflect and ‘retell’ the stories of their lives and to share their inner dialogues with me. I basically act as a facilitator, a ‘mirror’, a concerned and loving friend that listens to them and helps them refocus and re-evaluate their issues. Even religious people resonate to the cards. I can honestly say that the Soul Cards are very effective tools in counseling to gain access to the human psyche and reach the seat of universal/cosmic archetypes.

Click below for client stories:

Moving On and Finding a New Life and Love

Death of a Parent and the SoulCards . . .A journey Within and the Road to Healing


Candi Magno is from the Philippines. She holds a Masters degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with majors in Sociology/Psychology and Literature. You can contact her at healing_quest_ph@yahoo.com

This is a question that comes up in most workshops. Sometimes people are familiar with the SoulCards, and want to know how to do that. I always encourage them to begin simply in order to establish a deep connection with the process and with themselves. There is no manipulation of color involved in the pure form of Touch Drawing.

When I began doing Touch Drawing in 1974, I used standard black printing ink. That‘s what was on the piece of glass on which I did my first Touch Drawings. The issue of color did not even occur to me for years. My focus was on the movement of my fingers on the paper to express the inner movements of my psyche.

I highly recommend that you keep paint on the drawing board as simple as possible. Focus your attention on what happens inside of you rather than the colors on the board or the ‘look’ of the drawing. When you begin a session, select a color that appeals to you, that ‘matches your feeling. Put a small amount onto the board, roll it smooth and lay your paper down on top. Then focus your awareness inside and move your fingertips as if they are dancing your feelings onto the page.

Once you have established your inner connection with Touch Drawing, you can develop your own particular approach to working with more dimensions of color. You might want to have several drawing boards and roll out a different color on each. You can then select a different color board for each drawing, or do your Touch Drawing in layers, moving the paper from one board to another.

You can explore applying more than one color to the board. Multiple rollers can help keep the colors from mixing together, but eventually they will roll into one.

Occasionally in a workshop, I see someone having fun placing colors on the board in specific patterns, almost as if they are creating a painting. They then place the paper on top and rub the surface. Upon lifting it, they see the painting they just created on the board transferred to the paper. This is an entirely different, and well-established artistic process called a monoprint. It is a fine creative exploration, but I would not call it Touch Drawing.

Once your drawings are completed and dry, you can embellish them with color in an infinite variety of ways. We will explore this topic in another newsletter.