VIDEO: Woman Brings Art Therapy to Dexter Families Affected by Tornado

Around her tent, perched at the corner of a property in one of the hardest hit subdivisions on Dexter-Ann Arbor Road, are signs that Dexter residents have posted following a tornado that ravaged the community last week.

"What doesn't kill us - makes us strong," reads one sign. Another simply says "Community."

Christine Lux of Ann Arbor, an art therapist and crisis intervention counselor, has been working with kids and their families throughout the weekend and on Monday. She said that art projects give children and their families an outlet in which they can express what they are feeling following traumatic situations like the Dexter tornado.

"Doing something through art lets it come up naturally," she said.

5 tips for helping children through trauma recovery

1. Understand that it’s natural to be at a loss for words and that’s okay. What you do is more powerful than what you say because trauma is an experience of the body that overrides the mind. Because it leaves us feeling unsafe and powerless, doing things that restore  a sense of safety and control and reduces fear is most important.
2. Smiling, laughing, hugging, cuddling, lots of extra eye contact, playing games, telling stories, eating together: All these help restore feelings of family safety and home in the heart.
3. Find ways that help your child calm themselves. Taking a deep breath to blow up a balloon, filling it with all the bad or confusing energy that is swirling around inside and then making a game with balloons is a simple activity that the whole family could do together.
4. Make creative journals. “A picture is worth a thousand words” was never more true than after trauma. Families can draw pictures of their worries and fears on one side, and pictures of what they are grateful for, and what makes them feel better on the other. Doing this on a daily basis provides a safe container to hold fears and a concrete way to recognize strengths, as well as a starting point for talking.
5. Put children in control by giving them choices and including them in decision making processes when you can: This color or that color? Where should this go? How should this be done? Everyone benefits.