Project: Sculpt Off Cruelty

This Pro Bono Project founded by Dr Peg LeVine began as a restorative practice for refugees who have and have not been granted residency status — many await their fate during and after detention. Her project includes Peace Keeping forces and veterans, and First Nations’ children (Australia and New Zealand).  

Peg finds that an eco-centred, curiosity-enhancing environment (non-institutional, not computer driven) is essential for restoring the human imagination and sensory system harmed by human cruelty.**

Duty of Care and Secure Practice:

As a specialist of torture and trauma aftermath, LeVine and specialist team (classic-trained Morita therapists, volunteer psychologists-physicians-psychiatrists, art therapists) choose media that account for each participant’s geo-cultural history and sensory saturation by torture and  massacred ecosystems. LeVine makes it clear: Psychological and Sensate Torture is not always accompanied by physical torture.

Readiness is assessed for group and/or individual projects. We do sensory-harm assessments. This is not an occupational or recreational project. Therapists consider the sculpting methods, tools, levels of messiness across medium (clay, wood, plasticine, stone (soft to hard), metal, and recycled material) for each person’s sensory system health.

Ethically, we do not apply exposure therapy as it can trigger dissociative episodes. In keeping with classic Morita therapy, we offer an environmental ambiance, which is not overwhelming to an individual’s sensory system — hearing, seeing (natural light), feeling, smelling, tasting. For instance, hammering or pounding sounds may be abrasive; florescent lights or closed spaces may counter healing. Assessing natural talents, physical capacity, preference for neatness,  and imagination safety is integral to our participants’ wellbeing.  

Independent Practice Affiliation:

This project has no religious affiliation and operates outside religious affiliated sites — given that over half the world is steeped in animist perceptions and practices (regardless of language, religion, nationality, gender, etc.). Sculpting offers a culturally-responsive medium for expression and engagement. The project runs on pro bono professional time and gifted donations that maintain garden plants, art supplies, etc.  

Past Project Example:

Four women from a SE Asian country made a small shrine out of clay (slab structure, kiln fired) — a prototype in their remote villages from a place they could not return. They carved tiny amulets out of soft soap stone (for front of shrine) to honour ancestors in hope of visitations. Fruit and incense offered each morning. [Image bottom: Carving with tiny Buddha head recessed in forehead]. 

Specialisation under this Project:

As a medical anthropologist, clinical psychologist and scholar of mass violence and genocide, Peg brings awareness of the cost of human cruelty on the human imagination. The project environment is vital to participants’ experiences of safety and freedom. The strategic use of silence and natural scape engages the senses.

**As a specialist/scholar of psychiatrist Shoma Morita, MD (moritatherapy.net), Dr LeVine has drawn from Morita’s ‘classic’ intended approach and eco-centric environment to “enable restoration of the human imagination and sensory system — harmed by human cruelty.” PL, 2017].