Living with a disability, physical or mental, is a great challenge: especially for those who live next to a person with special needs.
And this challenge is a source of great stress, emotions and negative thoughts. Laughter and play can alleviate this situation. First of all, they raise the mood and therefore manage to change the perception of negativity to a more bearable level. Since the sessions take place in groups, they also provide a lot of help as you are able to share the pain and bitterness of the situation. As for the practice directly with people with psychophysical disabilities, I had the opportunity to bring my sessions to different centers, in Italy and Greece.
The results exceeded my expectations.
In the testimonies section, I report the feedback of the psychologist of the center for adults with psychomotor delays in Kalamaria, Thessaloniki, with whom I continue to collaborate. I remember the faces of some of them at our first meeting, with a rather wary expression. They didn’t understand why they had to fake the laughter…. and they were right! Of course, I could make use of the presence of the educators and the psychologist, who with their example, were of particular help. Over the course of a few weeks, alternating laughter with games and circular dances, the faces of the participants lit up. The welcome, when I arrived, was always super warm. The search for a gaze and a personalized greeting, even from those who at the beginning were more reserved, or more, distrustful. Playing and laughing has also transformed the relationships within the institute and between the educators: having shown their emotions within a protected space, has allowed them to reveal themselves, to interact in a more playful way, to be able to afford to be seen while crying with emotion without being ashamed of it. And then hearing “We love you very much” from the “kids” is really priceless! I also love them very much and the time spent doing our activities is a precious fuel for me.
