Artichoke Studio offers:

• Private art therapy, play therapy, music therapy, and dance movement therapy sessions for individuals and groups, children and adults.
* All our creative arts therapists are qualified professionals with a graduate degree in the field from internationally approved university programs.

• Consultancy services such as workshops and projects in collaboration with different local and international organizations targeting specific populations and dealing with particular issues, such as war trauma, addictions, domestic violence, gender equality, youth empowerment, community building, etc.

• Training of trainers (TOT) for using visual art and creative tools in psychosocial support, in Arabic and English.

Selected Previous Projects:

“Ahlan Simsim” with Sesame Workshop (since 2018)

Ahlan Simsim is a TV show, part of a broader humanitarian program, initiated by Sesame Workshop and International Refugee Committee (IRC). It targets both children and their caregivers affected by the Syrian war, reaching out to refugees, displaced persons, and host communities in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. It mainly aims at improving the cognitive and social-emotional skills of young children. Ahlan Simsim became the largest early childhood intervention in the history of humanitarian response, reaching to 9.4 million children in the region.
Artichoke Studio is part of the educational and psychological consultants’ group working on the development of Ahlan Simsim’ social-emotional content since its early start. The tasks include identifying an umbrella theme for the curriculum of each season, determining relevant strategies and key messages for the episodes, reviewing scripts, as well as ensuring that all the content is child friendly and well adapted to the cultural context, while remaining entertaining enough for the targeted viewers.

Arts Therapies Based Interventions with War Toys (Since 2014)

War Toys is a US-based, nonprofit organization whose mission is to use toy photography, toy design, and creative arts therapies to positively impact the lives of children affected by war.
Artichoke Studio has been involved in facilitating art-based interviews using art therapy approaches with the children to narrate their personal stories in a safe and healing environment. The children’s stories and drawings eventually are used as bases to direct toy photography. Between 2014 and 2018, around 500 stories were gathered from refugee camps in several regions of Lebanon and Iraq. Artichoke Studio also takes part in the Healing Programs, aiming at implementing brief expressive therapy interventions for traumatized children and providing training in expressive-therapy-based psychosocial interventions for NGO and UN staff at IDP and refugee camps. Lastly, there’s the prospect of a collaborative research about children’s play patterns and behaviors using war toys.

“Memorialization Project” with ACT For The Disappeared & International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) (2016-2020)

The Memorialization Project supports families of people who went missing during armed conflicts in Lebanon, which began in 1975. The project involved psychosocial support groups to help in dealing with ambiguous loss. The families also painted a chair in honor of every loved one who went missing, which resulted in a communal exhibit called “Empty Chairs. Waiting Families.” Each chair tells the story of a missing person and represents the empty space left in the lives of their families. This process helped the families in breaking their isolation, giving space for their struggles, regaining a sense of control, creating a symbolic monument, as well as advocating nationally for their right to know the fate of their loved ones. The project was implemented around the country, across regions and religions, creating over 200 chairs. In collaboration with ICRC in Lebanon and ACT for the Disappeared, Artichoke Studio created the protocol for the interventions, facilitated a substantial part of the psychosocial support sessions, and supervised the execution of the chairs.

"Art & Dance Movement Therapy" with NEXT STEP at the American University of Beirut (AUB) (2019-2020)

The NEXT STEP Program at AUB Continuing Education Center (CEC) is a university-based transition program for youth and adults with intellectual challenges. It provides students with life skills to seek legal and productive employment, participate in community life, and achieve independent living. Artichoke Studio provided art and dance movement therapy to enhance body awareness, self-confidence, emotional regulation, and interpersonal skills.

“Addressing the Impact of Trauma in Educational Setting” with Al Madad Foundation (2018-2019)

Al Madad Foundation empowers some of the most vulnerable children by providing opportunities to heal, learn, and grow. Our collaborative project addressed the impact of psychological trauma on education attainment at the Children's Learning Centre in Baalbek (Lebanon), which schools around 500 refugee students. Our holistic and integrative approach targeted students as well as teachers and parents. Artichoke Studio provided the 15 teachers with trainings in assessment and referral, classroom management and positive discipline skills, in-class creative psychosocial support, as well as self-development and self-care workshops. We also reached out to parents offering parenting sessions that tackled sensitive topics, such as bullying, developmental needs, strong parent-child bond, sexual abuse, war trauma, and gender-based violence. Most evidently, throughout the school year, Artichoke Studio provided in-depth art therapy, dance movement therapy, and play therapy in individual and/or group sessions to around 50 referred students who needed additional psychological support.

“Staff Self-Care & Training in Using Creative Art Techniques in PSS” with Terre des Hommes (TdH) in Iraq (2017 and 2018)

For two consecutive years, Artichoke Studio provided three-days trainings for the staff of TdH in Iraq. Part of the training addressed the emotional exhaustion, vicarious traumatization, burnout, and compassion fatigue that professionals who work in the field with traumatized populations are at risk of. The other part of the training focused on how to integrate some visual art tools and creative techniques in their psychosocial support work with the refugees and the displaced, especially in emergency temporarily settings.