Therapists provide support for 70 people living with disabilities, using different body psychotherapy techniques to develop the means to better cope with reality. "Why has such a thing happened to me", "Why am I not like the others", "I can't do this because then the others will talk about me", are frequent questions that people with disabilities ponder. Some people who are "bound" in a wheelchair and some who live with physical changes feel high levels of discomfort in front of others as guilty feelings that surround their differences always accompany them. Those who wonder most are often the family members as they do everything possible so that their children are not neglected by society. To support these families and to prepare people with disabilities to accept themselves as they are and to make them forget the mentioned questions above, leaving them feeling isolated and closed off from society, Saranda Rexha and Liliana Drini developed a project to help people with disabilities gain more self-esteem by offering techniques to change the way they think about themselves. The aim of the project was to offer people with disabilities a special place where they had the opportunity to feel equal with the others—acknowledging that they do have the same needs as the others—and to experience their full potential. The project was supported by the European Association for Body Psychotherapy’s Innovation Fund, which was set up to search out innovative uses of body psychotherapy. The fund awarded €2000 to The Stress Management & Counseling Center, Kosova, headed by Saranda Rexha and Liliana Drini, psychologists and candidate members of EABP. They were working on “a project to improve the life of people with disabilities, to offer a place where peoples’ rights are fulfilled, and where they can reach their full potential through body psychotherapy techniques.” Seventy persons with disabilities from NGO “Down Syndrom Kosova” and NGO “Hendikos”, including mothers of children with disabilities participated in this project. Therapists supported participants using various body psychotherapy techniques such as the following: breathing techniques; contacting the inner self; connecting their feelings between mind and body; working with body image; different types of meditation practices; yoga exercises; and group counseling to release the stress.
The communal goal was to support people with disabilities and help them integrate into society rather than blame and prejudge themselves, and to encourage them to let go of the wondering why they’re not like everyone else. According to Rexha, she and Drini achieved their goal. In the beginning some of the participants hesitated to accept the different approaches, but after the first session Rexha said they were open and happy that they had a chance to be focused to their inner self. For the first time they accepted this type of support, and it was incredible for them, she said. What helped the participants the most was body awareness, connecting their feeling with their body, releasing feelings of blame, and the sharing experience that made feel them supportive and supported in a group. During the project, she said, the participants started to feel more of their body and to accept and integrate their feelings of body and mind. "To work with people with disabilities, is a good feeling,” Rexha said, during an interview for a local European paper translated for use in this Join the Conversation article. “We have received a lot of love from them, we have learned a lot from them. They focus in on themselves, and they are always saying, "Why I can’t?” or “Why has this happened to me”? Usually this type of support has been more emphasized for people in wheelchairs. We provided something that, maybe, for the first time, these people have experienced.” Rexha and Drini have wr itten a jour nal ar ticle with plans for publication in conjunction with articles for Kosova newsletters, portals, webpages, and facebook.
Somatic Psychotherapy Today | Winter 2015 | Volume 5 Number 1 | page 27