by Vasintha Pather
Since completing the MA coursework in Drama Therapy in 2016, when asked to present a case study I often talk about a client I met during 2016 whom I will refer to as Sis E. Some of you reading this will have met her in story during my guest lectures.
Sis E was a Black woman, a mother of two in her mid-50’s who participated in group therapy weekly at Lawyers Against Abuse (LvA) which is a not-for-profit organisation providing legal and psychosocial support to survivors of gender-based violence (GBV). She was not formally educated, had been unemployed for 2 years, was a victim GBV within her intimate partner relationship, and had recently lost her mother with whom she had had a close relationship. Sis E lived in Diepsloot and according to LvA’s research at the time, both sexual and intimate partner violence were extremely prevalent and normalised in Diepsloot. In 2016 the Affordable Land and Housing Data Centre reported that living conditions in the area were characterised by overcrowding, limited access to basic services, environmental hazards and widespread poverty and unemployment; conditions which likely are present today. Against this backdrop Sis E’s emotional state was one of distress, anxiety, anger, and a sense helplessness. However, it was also one of resilience and hope, and it was this capacity that deepened my interest in her case and made me want to learn what she had to teach.
I remember thinking at the time – and sharing this with my lecturer and peers in class one day – that Sis E was a woman who will have experienced the socio-political turbulence of the 1990’s and 2000’s as we transitioned into a democracy. I was deeply disturbed knowing that she, like so many hundreds of thousands of Black (includes the racial categories of Black, Coloured and Indian) women, had been violated not only systemically as a result of the economic, political and social injustice of Apartheid, but also by the terrible consequences that this system had at a deeply personal level in the family. I am one of those women, as were my mother, both my grandmothers and too many more to presence here.
There are numerous barriers to living [domestic]-violence free including personal barriers such as shame, fear and lack of personal resources, relationship barriers such as denied access to support, and the physical abuse itself as in the case of Sis E, systemic barriers such as marginalisation and lack of access to institutionalised services, cultural barriers including gender stereotypes and environmental barriers such as those described in Diepsloot (Wilson, 1997) . As if these were not challenging enough, discriminatory behaviour toward ageing women is an additional and intersectional obstacle as older women are expected, amongst other things, to be unproductive, unhappy, lonely, invisible and uncomplaining (Rivkin, 2003)
Discriminatory behaviour toward ageing women is an additional and intersectional obstacle as older women are expected, amongst other things, to be unproductive, unhappy, lonely, invisible and uncomplaining (Rivkin, 2003)
Working with a strengths-oriented approach the therapeutic aims of the group therapy included amplification of the participants strengths and inner resources with deep awareness of the formidable barriers they faced, potentially internally and definitely externally. This approach was partnered with the centring of self-care in the design of sessions so that participants’ sense of self-worth might be core to their experiences. Lewis (1993) links physical verticality and self-assertion proposing that we cannot take a stand from a position of hopeless victimhood and that the act of standing – or embodying taking a stand – contains a force that is generative of forward movement. This is echoed by Pendzick (1997) who argues that action-oriented approaches are key in the process of empowerment because they encourage learning and action.
Action-oriented approaches are key in the process of empowerment because they encourage learning and action. (Pendzick,1997)
In the months of working with the group, I witnessed the changes in Sis E and other group participants. Her sense of hope began to increase as her emotional expression found their authenticity and presence through the expressive arts-based processes. She began to experience herself as stronger and more positive about her person and what might be possible, and she began to shape a plan for setting up a care and support centre for the youth in her area.
“In a mental health context we are advocating for the health of our clients through the work we are doing. “
What does all this have to do with advocacy? Like you I see people of all ages struggling to recover from the inter-generational consequences of Apartheid. In a mental health context we are advocating for the health of our clients through the work we are doing. Advocating for our profession means expanding the impact our work might have on many thousands of South Africans still trying to recover from our staggering history. The potential we might hold for stewarding the integration of healthier communities is huge. Beyond and underpinning both individual and community, we must bear a deep responsibility to commit to contributing to healing this nation, our nation, including women like Sis E who fought for liberation only to be sucked back into the swampland of an unhealed society. So we must advocate for ourselves and each other to take a stand, to assert in ourselves the healer and the leader who has the capacity to remind others of their inherent strength and worth so that they might too learn how to stand again, just like Sis E did.
References:
Lewis, P. 1993. Creative Transformation. Chiron Publications. Illinois, USA.
Pendzick, S. 1997. Dramatherapy and Violence Against Women. In: Jennings, S ed. Dramatherapy Theory and Practice 3. London. Routledge. P 222-233
Rivkin, 2003 cited in Hightower & Smith. (2005). Developing Support for Older Abused Women. BC/Yukon Society of Transition Houses. Vancouver
Wilson, 1997 cited in Pather, V. (2017). Enrich the Narrative, Empower the Leader. University of Witwatersrand.
