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Tuesday 29 September, 2020
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Vol 14 No 39
Puppets are the go
Ash Milne with puppets for the Van Go Moorabool creative therapy program. Photo - Renae Doolan By Caitlin Bewley (3rd Yr Swinburne Uni) A local counselling group are asking the community to donate puppets for children to use during one of their sessions. Van Go Moorabool is a creative therapy program that works with children who have experienced family violence. During COVID-19, the team distributed packs to children they would normally meet with face to face, to ensure they are still receiving the help they need. The items in the packs replicate the materials that would normally be used in a counselling
session, which are now predominantly held via Zoom. Transitional Manager and Single Session Therapist at Van Go Moorabool, Ash Milne, said the packs include art supplies, but sock puppets would be a great addition. “We’ve used the puppets face to face and they’re a really good tool for kids that have experienced trauma to use,” she said. “The kids can either talk as the puppet and feel like they’re not talking as themselves, or they can tell us things through the puppet. “The idea is to send out puppets with
each pack. The packs are addressed to the children in the household, and this begins our engagement process with the family, as it is fun, creative and something for the children to look forward to when starting online sessions.” Van Go Moorabool work under WRISC Family Violence support, who have their head office in Ballarat. Ms Milne said in Moorabool alone, Van Go work with 68 individual clients currently open and 215 clients open across Moorabool, Ballarat, Golden Plains and Hepburn. “The main thing is to give each individual
child a voice, and for families, parents, educators, everyone, to always be listening to what the children are saying, because they’re always trying to tell us something. “That’s what this is about, and where our work comes from in terms of children’s experiences and providing a creative way to heal from the violence they’ve experienced,” Ms Milne said. If you want to donate sock puppets to the Van Go program, send your puppet to WRISC Family Violence Support, PO Box 92 Ballarat 3353 or contact the office on 5333 3666 to arrange a time to drop them off.
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