Art to heart
Art therapist Edmundo Dos Santos believes that art is medicine and has come to the state to provide emotional support to the needy.
Edmundo walks into the cafe at Fort Kochi looking every bit a typical traveller. Lean with a shaven head, wearing earth coloured loose clothing with rudraksha chains as accessories. Although this is not his first time in Kerala, he seems to have enjoyed the festive mood Fort Kochi is adorned with these days. After introducing himself in a heavily accented English, he goes onto say, “This time my stay is eight months long. It’s been six months already and I will be here till March.” Edmundo Dos Santos is a researcher, practitioner of art therapy, professor at University of Applied Psychology in Lisbon and president of the Scars — Association of Applied Arts in Barcelona.
His association with Street Heroes of India and The Outreach Society as the Art Therapist in Trauma Rehabilitation Programme and Child Sexual Abuse is what brought him to India. He explains why he is here: “I am here to work with children and women who are undergoing a trauma or have been sexually abused. My job here is to give social and emotional support through art therapy. I have been staying at an orphanage in Thiruvananthapuram for some time now and has been conducting a workshop for empowering women.”
This is actually Edmundo’s third time in Kerala. “My visits here are always associated with expressive art therapy. To give psychosocial support to children, to women, to any person who requires emotional support through art therapy.” Edmunodo has tied up with a prominent hospital in Kochi and is working with its department of oncology, specially the paediatric section. “I believe art is medicine so I work on bedsides to give emotional support to the children.”
What is art therapy? “Art therapy is like psycho therapy. The difference here is that art therapy uses different mediums of communication. Sometimes verbal communication alone does not suffice for a person to communicate their problems, this is where art therapy comes in.” He elaborates further, “I started studying this on an academic level eight years ago. Art therapy is a discipline that uses different mediums of expression for healing the inner wounds. Sometimes the patient and the therapist sing together or paint together. We can use sound, drama, poetry, photography, painting or music. Ultimately, the patient has to feel that someone is there for them.”
He goes on: “In the US, this type of therapy has been going on for nearly 60 years but not this part of the world. Also, not everything is art therapy. We give our heart, soul, energy and time to it. It requires years of training. Art therapists have a huge responsibility of taking care of someone’s soul.” He explains that this discipline has a clinical frame work. “The basis of such a therapy is relationship. It cannot work without building a relationship between the person and the therapist. Sometimes it may take years for the patient to form that kind of bond, so I work with some of them for years.”
Edmundo, who has done extensive research in body movements, dance and visual art as tools of artistic creation and human development, has been collaborating with independent photographer Ratheesh Sundaram for the project ‘Bridge’. “Apart from being a therapist. I am a performer and deploy dance or body movements. That is what I am doing in the photography project with Ratheesh. I work with interdisciplinary performance. The philosophy behind the dance is, ‘body knows and body moves’.” When asked why he chose India, Edmunodo smiles. “I have a soul relation with India. My father is from Goa and mother is Portuguese. I’ve spent eight years of my childhood in an orphanage. My mother died of cancer and I can empathise with some of the children I meet here. I feel everything I do now is connected with my past life.”