Felt Therapy

‘Felt Therapy’ is an alternative approach to cross-cultural counselling, psychosocial rehabilitation, self-expression and empowerment.

The project focus primarily on women empowerment, especially adolescents and young adults, who are victims of human trafficking and (child) prostitution, unsafe migration, torture or gender based violence, forced marriage, domestic violence, war crimes, forced labour and slavery. The therapy is community/group based but can be practised individually, participants can engage in different levels.

Felt Therapy intends to be a non-analytical, non-verbal therapy, focusing on the crafting process and its therapeutic benefits. This would help traumatised people in the healing process a more ‘silent’ way, where they can take their life into their own hands. Instead helping individuals to re-discover and narrate the trauma occurred and the feelings connected to it, I would focus on the silent healing in the community, turning the negative energies into positive, finding joy and calmness in creativity over their depression, and focusing on the future, building resilience in the body and mind.

This therapy is considered as a culture sensitive and cross-cultural therapy, and I intend to use it also with women whose first language is not English or does not speak English at all. Women with different cultural background might not be benefited by verbal therapies as they might not get used to articulate their own feelings. In some cultures feelings for the family and community would overtake individual needs and would feel shame to talk about problems.