Creative Arts Workshops.
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These workshops emerged from creative art practices carried out with women living in the Nicosia Municipality Women’s Shelter, within a safe and inclusive space.
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Creative expression became another language at moments when speaking felt difficult, opening space for emotions, intuitions, and inner resources to become visible.
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The aim was to support participants’ self-confidence, strengthen their coping skills, and accompany them in rebuilding an inner safe space they could always return to
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Point of Departure
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These works grew out of creative arts workshops held at the women’s shelter. The workshops aimed to meet vulnerable women who were coping with traumatic experiences within the family, in a safe and inclusive environment.
In this space—where the body, intuition, and imagination could speak again—creative expression transformed into another language when words were not enough. Painting was approached as a tool that allowed suppressed emotions, questions, and desires to become visible.
Approach
In the workshops, freedom was not treated as a destination, but as a state experienced step by step.
The aim was to support participants’ self-confidence, raise awareness around human rights and coping strategies, and create an inner space from which they could look toward the future with hope.
As participants questioned the roles and places imposed on them, they found the opportunity to rebuild a safe inner space they could always return to.
Methodology
The program was based on a “low skill, high sensitivity” approach.
Rather than technical ability, sensitivity was prioritized, creating a space of expression free from judgment. Subjective experience was always kept at the center of the group process. Meaning-making and interpretation were left entirely to the participants themselves.
Expression was encouraged without the pressure to produce something “perfect” verbally or visually. A safe space was created where participants could decide how they wanted to tell their own stories.
One of the core axes of the workshops was collectively exploring how to create a space where participants could feel safe.
Program Structure
Creative Practices
The first part of the program included: painting and drawing, movement and dance, playing with words
Each activity was designed with different intentions such as building self-confidence, self-love, letting go of overthinking, feeling comfortable with the unknown, staying present, and experiencing the impermanence of everything.
At the end of each session, space was opened for participants to share what they experienced and felt during the workshop.
Empowerment Meetings
Every three months, an external female guest was invited to facilitate empowerment-focused workshops. During these meetings, participants had the opportunity to: share their life experiences, talk about projects they were involved in, reflect on their future plans.
The aim of these regular gatherings was to create a supportive ground for participants to revisit and repair their sense of self-worth.
Purpose and Impact
These creative arts workshops opened a space for listening, expression, healing, and reconnecting with life.
Participants found the opportunity to reconnect with their inner resources, strengthening both individually and collectively.
Some Resonances I Wrote
Wherever it is we want to go,
wanting it is enough.
It cannot be prevented.
Freedom is not asked for politely — it is taken.
What Kind of Place
When a person knows they will be listened to, they begin to speak.
If there is no listening, words lose their meaning;
they become compressed, unable to flow.
Only in a safe space where expression is possible
do words begin to pour out and find meaning.
As the facilitator of the workshops, while holding space for others, I found myself revisiting my own need to “return home” inwardly.
I saw that strength had shifted—from control to the ability to pause.
And I came face to face with the feeling that I might exist without having to carry everything.
These workshops reveal that creativity is not only a tool for making art—it is a language of presence, resilience, and self-recognition. By providing a safe space, participants were able to listen, express, and reconnect with themselves, transforming vulnerability into agency. The process emphasizes that healing, empowerment, and freedom are not destinations, but practices enacted step by step, through attention, care, and shared creative engagement.