Why is it so important to express oneself?

Although there are no words to explain how it feels to witness a child expressing creatively their frustration, aspirations, traumatic past, hopes and imagination, I will try to explain to you the importance of this expression.

All the kids at Ramana's are classified as children at-risk. This is because of previous traumatic experience, abuse, neglect, human trafficking or have become orphans. Now you may say that living in a loving caring community such as this children's home, strengthens up and helps recover from ones past calamities. Providing the kids with food, hug, warm cloths and shelter is enough for survival for the time being. Education adds up towards social skills, interaction & cognitive development providing the foundation for a brighter future, and therapy through creative expression will make the treat for enhancing both physical and psychological skills; Being encouraged to use their imagination, the brain muscle for better problem solving and ways of communication is being nurtured. Through physical & psychological activities like play, movement and story enactment one re-discovers their Self, re-establishes their body-image and becomes more aware of their needs, boundaries and aspirations.

You may say, a fact is a fact indeed and "What has passed belongs to the Past". It is true, but whoever have experienced trauma, they can tell you that they've carried memories of this trauma for much longer than the time it was initially inflicted; either cognitively - in their mind and hearts, demonstrated in thoughts, emotions, attention deficiency or psychopathology - either physically - in the body reactions, stress response, body posture and self-bodycare - past trauma manifests in several different ways. Now one can either deal with it or ignore it. But this is not an issue one can just ignore or 'drop' forever. The more one tries to suppress it the more it builds up, developing to many more calamities, leading to nervous breakdowns and/or delinquent behaviour. There is only one way of treating a wound effectively; it is by acknowledging it and treating it properly. Scars may always remain, but at least there is no constant bleeding and foreign objects have been cleared off so they won't be causing any further harm.