Friday March 29th, 2024
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Cairo's Newest Cultural Centre Is Using Art Therapy to Heal Trauma

Dawar Cultural Center is using performing arts as a therapeutic method to help communities and individuals deal with the city and even collective trauma.

Staff Writer

When you live in Cairo, stress is your best friend. Who could blame you, with traffic, noise, horrible internet and constant heatwaves, the city is exhausting to live in. But Cairo can also be a very culturally stimulating place to live in, what with the art exhibitions, theatre performances, and poetry readings that happen almost every day. Dawar, a new cultural centre in the heart of the city, is using performance arts, as a way to enjoy the capital, but without the obligatory stress that comes with it.

Holder of a PhD in psychotherapy and founder of Dawar is Ben Rivers whose goal was to create a community for therapy through theatre and psychodrama. The perfect antidote to Cairo. With a professional team of Egyptian and foreign practitioners including artists, educators, psychotherapists, and health workers, Dawar is dedicated to promoting creativity, critical thinking, civic engagement, and community cohesion through their therapy sessions.

It's easy to get lost in all this, but the centre specialises in psychodrama, an experimental form of psychotherapy in which patients act out events from their past. And it's been proven to help people gain greater perspective on emotional concerns, conflicts, or other areas of difficulty in a safe, trusted environment. 

“We wanted to help people, especially those who need it the most, heal through art, and we wanted to teach people about psychodrama and all its benefits” the Dawar team tell us. Their courses are specially structured to help you heal and learn more about yourself. They provide therapeutic services for individuals and communities impacted by violence, adversity and collective trauma, including long-term courses that help people heal and short-term workshops and classes for people who want to learn about the benefits of therapy through performance art.

For more info check out their Facebook page.