Puppet therapy experiences
Europe
Scotland
Helps children with cancer. Use of puppets
Mrs. Mickey Aronoff. Holder (1)
ochoyluna@yahoo.com
She was the director of the Scottish Mask and Puppet Center. She is currently a therapy consultant for American puppeteers.
Since the 1970s, this puppeteer has been preparing children for surgery and traumatic examinations using puppets.
Fig.39
According to Aronoff, hospitals are stressful places.
Time is an enemy and a quickly accessible way to overcome the problem must be learned.
"Puppets help children and their families understand what is happening and why. The goal of the work is to reduce the fear through the interactive game of the dolls, to be able to teach the children the fact of being ill and the process of their treatment. In this way, they can learn techniques to deal with the disease. As an instrument mainly deprived of threats and expressive, they allow a freer manifestation of the problems associated with deadly diseases.
For example, using puppets, I have taught children that it is a lumbar puncture and also relaxation techniques.
With puppets we begin to introduce harsh realities, medical equipment, needles that cause pain… It is an instrument for exchange, for understanding, a tool that speaks instead of the voice.
One of the games that this puppeteer uses to prepare the children is the staging of the treatments with the puppets, in which sometimes the doctor is the patient himself.
Puppets are not built by children. The goal is to prepare them for the procedure, not to make the puppet itself, as time is limited. Maybe in places where children are less sick, they can build puppets, but not in the clinic. Mickey Aronoff has also worked in prisons, preparing inmates for their release.
(1) PUPPET AND THERAPY. VII INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Number 25 - 1995
