Healing Through the Skies: Coping With Grief Through a Therapeutic Group Activity for Children in Palestine

Abstract

The authors propose an innovative group-based therapeutic activity for traumatized children in Palestine, a one-day program creating and flying kites under the leadership of a two-person team. The authors discuss the importance of flying within the religious and cultural background of Palestine as well as the prevalence of kite imagery in children's books, songs, and artisanship. Clinical cases reflecting the theme of flying are also described. The authors argue that the format of the proposed therapeutic activity is particularly appropriate to Palestine because of the large numbers of children with traumatic experiences and because of the central role of collective engagement as the bedrock of psychological resilience in Palestine. The activity of making and flying kites is especially suited to the process of working through losses, because of the kite's symbolic implications of freedom, joy, and personal agency; the child's own kite, and special messages the child may write on the kite, can express enduring psychic connection with beloved people and things who have been lost. The specifics of the therapeutic project are outlined in detail, including the capacity to recognize and to refer for specialized mental health services those children who may require it.