During December this year, Les Petrie & Liz Coombes will be taking two final year Newport University BA(Hons) Creative Therapies students to Palestine to work therapeutically with Palestinian orphans in the 'SOS Village & School' in Bethlehem. Liz (Music Therapist & Creative Therapies tutor) has been working in Palestine during the last year and the 'SOS' organisation is keen to forge further links with the Creative Therapies programme at Newport University. This is not only a great opportunity for the students to gain experience of working with people from another culture but also to experience working within the culture first hand. This will clearly strengthen students' personal profiles as they seek professional appointments during their last year of the programme.
The work in Bethlehem will add to the learning gained from two of the Creative Therapies modules which deal with diversity related to culture. It will also help to prepare them for their final Placements which will begin after the Christmas vacation and add further quality to their final research dissertations.
The amazing thing about the Creative Therapies programme is that students, when they qualify, can choose to develop their therapeutic work in venues all over the world; never has there been so much need for this type of work. Creative Therapies tutors are now also looking towards Jordan and Portugal for the possibility of future student placement links within different cultures.
