The Healing Arts – Forging Alliances of Arts & Medicine
The Healing Arts – Forging Alliances of Arts & Medicine
T-NET
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Currently in Romania, 1 in 2 children experienced forms of bullying according to a Save the Children report. Psychological burden resulting from bullying is reported to have a negative impact into adulthood. We have designed T-NET, an applied theatre intervention aimed at reducing psychological burden for teenagers who experienced bullying and other adverse experiences based on NET, Narrative Exposure Therapy a treatment for persons who continue to suffer from past traumatic experiences and improvisational theatre techniques. In T-NET adolescents are gradually familiarized with improvisation techniques and psychoeducational exercises oriented towards understanding adverse experience impact on psychological wellbeing. Participants explore through narration and improvisations life events with strong emotional arousal. Participants are narrate their lives as a Hero Journey while the colleagues guided by a facilitator respond with improvisations to the narrated events. 52 teenagers participated in more than 6 sessions of T-NET, 17 of them participated in 12 sessions and filled questionnaires at the first session and after the last session. Comparative pre-post intervention analyses of variables of interest indicated significant decrease in rumination, self-esteem increase, anxiety and depression. Based on observed dynamics of variables of interests we consider that T-NET can contribute to the emotional development of teenagers by its positive impact on key dimensions of psychological wellbeing: rumination, self-esteem, anxiety and depression generally affected by bullying experiences. T-NET has the objective of connecting life-stories and placing teenagers at the centre of their life experience both in happy and adverse events, creating solidarity and contributing to better emotional environments.



