By Claire Ochunga

When words are insufficient to articulate the voice in your head, when letters cannot begin to express the emotion you feel, take a blank piece of paper and let every stroke of your paint brush, shade of your color pencil, and texture of your crayon lay it all out for you. Art as Therapy is a creative process that helps individuals develop self-awareness, explore emotions, tap into the subconscious and also works as a form of de-stressing.

The Peer Educators and Counselors Club (PECC) will be hosting weekly Art Therapy Sessions that will be held in the Peer Counseling Room (Student Center 2nd Floor, Left Wing) every Wednesday starting on June 22, 2022 which is open to the USIU-Africa fraternity.

In preparation for these weekly Art Therapy sessions, an Art Experience Training was held on Saturday June 4, 2022 courtesy of the PECC Club in collaboration with the Counseling Center. The training aimed to equip the Peer Educators and Counselors with the basic knowledge and skills to facilitate open studio art therapy sessions.

The trainees were honored to receive the training from Dr. Nyawira Kuria who holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from USIU-Africa and has more than ten years’ experience in the use of art in therapy, Ruth Mukami and Marie Odhiambo who are both psychologists and work with Prometheus- Kenya.

The outcome from the training was beyond expectation, the trainees had a chance to experience and appreciate the magic of Art Therapy. Attendees noted that the session was eye opening, as it allowed them to get a clearer visual of what they felt.

“The experience was wholesome from the beginning to the end. I cannot even specify what exactly I liked about it. The atmosphere was breath-taking and the smiles of people’s faces made the training even better,” noted one of the Counselors.