ARBN 633105736

David Alan Harris

David Alan Harris – Bio


Edition:

David, MA, LPC, LCAT, BC-DMT, NCC, is an award-winning mental health counsellor and dance/movement therapist who specialises in fostering resilience, and promoting recovery among survivors of human rights abuse and war. When working in West Africa in 2005 and 2006, David trained paraprofessional counsellors from refugee camps and post-conflict settings in Sierra Leone and Liberia to apply dance/movement therapy theories and practice in their work with communities devastated by the 11-years’ war.

Dancing with Child Soldiers


Edition: 2009 Vol. 8 Nos. 3-4

Keywords
trauma, restoration, reconciliation, circle dance, group drama, grief, community integration

The DTAA wishes to thank John Feffer, editor of Foreign Policy in Focus, who very kindly gave us permission to reprint this article from the online journal of the Institute for Policy Studies. The article first appeared in Volume 4 number 24. See www.fpif.org

David introduced Sierra Leonean and Liberian counsellors to dance/movement therapy practice—in 2005, launching the first DMT group in West Africa; and in 2006, apparently the first DMT group anywhere for former child combatants. David’s psychosocial counselling team sought to merge two dominant models, synthesizing local knowledge with psychological practices that originated in the West, by helping the transformation of their suffering and rage through bodily engagement akin to ancient initiatory rites as well as through cognitive reframing and verbal processing. Powerful expressions of emotion and empathy emerged over months of group games, dancing and dramatisation, culminating in a healing group performance for their community. (pp 26-30)

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