Hope, Healing and Art

When it comes to helping boys rescued from sex trafficking, counseling is key. The Blackbox team of professional therapists–Jeremey Wolfe, Peter Buckland, Whitney Nobis and others overseas–designed the first therapeutic curriculum for trafficked boys. They chose Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), because research shows its significant improvement in participants’ lives, and because of its proven effectiveness across ages and cultures. Ultimately, this therapy reduces the negative physical, mental and emotional consequences of the trauma and allows the person to move forward.

With counseling in the Blackbox home, then, trauma can become part of the boy’s history, rather than the defining event in his life.

Another key in the Blackbox TF-CBT model is art. Blackbox counselors use art therapy directives–artistic activities with a therapeutic purpose–in many counseling sessions, because art therapy offers a comfortable, expressive medium for addressing trauma. It allows boys to share their feelings and memories in a less threatening way than just talking about them. Art also brings the added benefits of relaxation and reduced anxiety. Thanks to generous donors, boys in the Blackbox home have art supplies–paints, yarn, markers, glue and much more–as well as personal art journals to tell their own stories through art.

Blackbox is committed to bringing hope and healing to sex trafficked boys in the Dominican Republic and beyond. Ultimately, our counseling curriculum teaches each boy to face his pain in order to move past it. To share his trauma without being defined by it. To come to the Master Artist and become His masterpiece. And to let God change his story…because the story must change.