Dalal AlSindi tells Behnaz Sanjana about her experience of being the only Bahraini at the Global Women’s Forum Dubai 2020 and her Art Therapy Centre in Bahrain.
For art therapy experts like Dalal, a person’s doodles and drawings can provide insight about their life’s experiences. “Art therapy is a professional psychotherapy discipline that uses art as an extra mode of communication to access hidden or unconscious thought patterns and emotions,” she says. “It is directed towards individuals who have mental, emotional or developmental difficulties and tackles the difficulties of trauma, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, schizophrenia and other psychological issues.”
Dalal believes that art in itself has healing properties, being a creative language that is understood worldwide. “Personally, art is a way to disconnect from stresses and be in a meditative state while drawing. It helps me understand my own psyche better, widens my imagination and also acts as a healthy way for me to express my emotions, whether negative or positive.”
After a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts from Loughborough University and then a Master’s in Art Psychotherapy from the University of Hertfordshire, Dalal worked at King Fahad Medical City’s Rehabilitation Hospital in Saudi Arabia. Amazed by the benefits of the practice in terms of enriching and empowering adults and children with emotional and mental needs, she achieved her goal of establishing the Art Therapy Centre in Bahrain in 2013. “The greatest challenge was to prove how effective this modality is, more so because it is a psychotherapy practice and results for any experience need time and patience. But I can confidently say that people’s perception towards mental health, particularly art therapy, has changed over the years,” she says, adding that there is more openness in asking for psychological help, be it through psychiatry, psychotherapy or its creative branches.
So, it was fitting that Bahrain’s pioneer in art therapy was invited to the Global Women’s Forum in Dubai this year. Dalal, along with a UAE-based art therapist, Sara Powell, spoke about its clinical and non-clinical benefits, her experience in the field and the discipline’s use with children and adults suffering mental health issues, trauma and war. “I felt proud and humbled to represent Bahrain at this esteemed forum, as a Bahraini woman who has introduced a fairly new profession to the nation,” says Dalal, who considers it her good fortune and honour to have met and networked with women from around the globe who are experts and pioneers in their fields. “Listening to their inspiring stories, I returned feeling elated with passion and drive.”
Setting new goals, Dalal plans to liaise with the educational and medical sectors to include art therapy for hospital patients, and art therapy groups or individual sessions for students with behavioural or mental difficulties. “My vision is to have a comprehensive centre that includes all kinds of licensed and qualified creative therapists in music, play and drama besides art. Furthermore, there is hope for a creative therapy association to spread awareness and protect patients as well as professionals in the field,” she says.
For those seeking therapy, she adds: “It is of great importance to ask to see proof of the qualifications of your therapist and keep in mind that they would require a minimum of a master’s degree to be qualified in any creative therapy or psychotherapy practice.”
