The Fun Files

The Fun Files aim to encourage a return to play following trauma and to enhance the ability to play, imagine and symbolise.

They enable professionals and parents to experiment with and appreciate a wide range of creative and playful options. They encourage all participants to find enjoyment and to experience a process that reduces mental preoccupations and increases a sense of embodiment.

The Fun Files help to broaden the concept of play, integrating it into the creative relational processes essential to child development and trauma healing.

The scope of the Fun Files

The Fun Files have been compiled for professionals in the fields of care, health, psychology and therapy, as well as for professionals and volunteers working in humanitarian organisations and local projects with a therapeutic focus.

In certain situations, the Fun Files enable professionals to work creatively in different settings – when they do not have a permanent space or must share the designated area with a colleague.

In other contexts, the Fun Files usefully complement a room already equipped with various materials, often natural ones.

In all cases, these materials will help certain patients to connect with the professional or volunteer and to express themselves without relying on speech.

The benefits of these materials:

- a resource for the professional

- helping the professional understand the nature and experience of the creative process

- reducing the pressure on participants to take part in general and to speak in particular

- moving away from the dominant paradigm of sitting and speaking

- giving the child or adult the opportunity to choose a path and engage in a creative process, with or without the active participation of the professional

- to introduce manual movements and other types of gestural movements

- a different form of sharing and a variety of modes of communication (non-verbal and partially non-verbal)

Principles to follow

Reflect on and practise with these materials within the context of the CREATIVE RELATIONSHIP (see the sketchbook on the Creative Relationship).

Do not show the entire set of Fun Files to anyone (including the person or people taking part in the session). One or more files may be selected for specific reasons prior to the individual or group session, or the entire set may be kept out of sight.

Introduce these practices as an option, never as an obligation.

Before starting, the framework must be clearly defined, including the timetable.

Where possible, the participant(s) should choose how they wish to begin – either before or after several suggestions from the practitioner. They may work alone or in the presence of the practitioner.

In a group setting, there may be greater engagement with another group member or with the therapist.

The third step for groups is often a sharing session with everyone or a collective extension.

See the sketchbook on CREATIVE PEDAGOGY and CREATIVE GROUP THERAPY

all materials are close at hand

They are found in everyday life, without the need to buy them from a shop.

They are inexpensive.

They can be used for purposes other than those suggested here or used in combination.

They can be placed in a folder that can itself be slipped into a professional’s bag or briefcase.

The ethics of creation

Those intending to use these ideas or adapt some of them to their specific context are strongly encouraged to accept the principles and preferences set out above.

If they are unsure or do not fully understand the relevance of these points, it is important that the professional – or volunteer – examines and deepens their understanding of creative ethics.

This ethics framework invites a re-examination of the professional’s role and promotes an approach that fosters a creative relationship between the participant(s) – whether children or adults – and the professional or volunteer.

It is possible to enter the first of the three series of explorations without continuing the training. These three series form the first stage of the training programme: the RELATIONSHIP GAME.

The 3 explorations

The first of the three EXPLORATIONS is the PERSONAL AND CREATIVE EXPLORATION, the objectives of which include the following:

- to let go of any notion of artistic or aesthetic production

- to let oneself go into the unknown of a process

- to take pleasure in exploration, spontaneity and surprise

- to learn a wide variety of ways to calm the body, integrate difficult emotions and feel fully alive in general

- to realise the value of all these creative processes for patients, group participants, etc.