Soothing Sendai (REPORT)

(PHOTO: Japanese & New York team at Sendai school for healing event/DRJUDYK)(HN, March, 22, 2012) - American psychologist Dr. Judy Kuriansky and famous Japanese and US  musicians traveled to the earthquake-affected area in northern Japan to do workshops and concerts for survivors, especially children, on the day after the one year anniversary of the 3.11 disaster.

“Many singers, sports stars, and helpers came to our town to help right after the natural disaster hit, but over time now, people have forgotten. The residents, and especially the children, are suffering now as ever before,” Go Osaka of The Recovery Assistance Center of Miyagi told international psychologist and NGO representative to the United Nations, Dr. Judy Kuriansky, when they met recently in New York at the United Nations concert in honor of the one-year anniversary of the Japan tragedy.

“Now we need to keep paying attention to the people and especially to their emotional needs,” Osaka told the noted psychologist.

Kuriansky, an expert in trauma who has done psychological first aide workshops and trainings after many international disasters, offered to help. That night, a plan was made for her to help design recovery workshops for the children of the affected areas.

The project is a partnership of The Recovery Center of Miyagi and Kuriansky’s NGO accredited at the United Nations, the International Association of Applied Psychology.  Another partner is the Stand Up For Peace Project that she co-founded with internationally acclaimed New York composer Russell Daisey.

(PHOTO: Japanese Soprano Tomoko Shibata and New York composer Russell Daisey performing in Sendai/DRJUDYK)

The Recovery Assistance Center of Miyagi plans to buy abandoned school houses and set up after-school programs for the children.  The programs will offer varied services.  Besides psychological help, famous musicians will give concerts and teach the children music.

Kuriansky enlisted the participation of two good friends who are famous Japanese musicians: world-class operatic soprano Tomoko Shibata and internationally acclaimed pop star Shinji Harada.  Both have performed concerts in the affected Sendai area, but are happy to do more, and to work with the two new partners.

“I feel pain and sadness over what happened in my country on 3/11,” says Shibata. “And I also feel the pain of America after 9/11 since I was in New York and saw the second plane hit the tower. I know that music has the power to heal, for myself, for all the people in Miyagi and all those who suffer.”

Harada feels similarly.  He has been devoted to performing Global Harmony peace charity concerts for years worldwide, including at the United Nations. He has a project helping impoverished children in the Philippines and he has written children's songs and a school anthem specifically for the children of Japan after this disaster.  Born in Hiroshima, he knows the pain of loss and devastation in his hometown from what happened in WWII. 

(PHOTO: Japanese pop star Shinji Harada singing for Sendai schoolchildren/DRJUDYK)

“The time has come to show how “kindness” is crucial to saving the world,” says Harada, and music has always been one way to send out positive messages.”

All concerts and workshops were free.  

On the night of the 3/11 anniversary, Shibata produced and performed in a memorial concert, the fourth in her series “Songs for Hope,” at the prestigious Yamaha Hall in Tokyo.  Kuriansky and Daisey flew to Tokyo from New York to be present at the concert and introduce their healing anthem `Towers of Light’ which they co-wrote after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, and which Shibata recently translated into Japanese, renaming it “Souls Become Stars.” The song debuted on the 3/11 night.

For the two day mission in Sendai, Kuriansky organized her `Healing Hearts' workshop to teach children techniques to reduce stress, build energy and personal strength, and regain hope.  These techniques are part of her toolbox used in her `Global Kids Connect' project, which connects children of trauma worldwide. The Japanese children drew messages of hope on cranes that will be brought to children in Haiti who have also been traumatized by an earthquake and will return the favor.

“This creates a circle of caring and support that psychological principles prove helps people, and especially children, heal in the face of trauma,’ says Kuriansky.

(PHOTO: NY psychologist Judy Kuriansky making cranes with Sendai schoolchildren/DRJUDYK)Kuriansky has applied these techniques in her psychological first aide interventions and training of local supporters in other parts of the world, including after the Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina in the USA, and earthquakes in Haiti and in China.

“I know how well children respond to these experiences that are not only helpful but also fun, so children feel safer and not alone,” says Kuriansky, who has taught her students these techniques in classes at Columbia University Teachers College.

“As an international psychologist, it is my honor to teach the Japanese children techniques I have taught children all over the world, after many disasters that can make them feel stronger and also connected to other children around the world who care about them,” Kuriansky adds.

The centers in Miyagi will offer not only music, arts, drawing, theatre, but also sports training.  Kuriansky has already enlisted friends who will send sports stars to meet with and teach, the children.

(PHOTO: Sendai school children at healing event/DRJUDYK)“The project warms my heart, thinking of bringing so many people from diverse fields of expertise to continue with supporting the people in Miyagi,” says Kuriansky.

The other important aspect is to create sustainability.  “People need to know you will continue the programs, and not just ‘helicopter’ in and leave.  You have to set up programs that last,” she says.  “That’s why we will have many volunteers in these fields and also we will train the local people, like teachers, to continue this work.”

--- HUMNEWS.  Dr. Judy Kuriansky is a clinical psychologist at Columbia University Teachers College, an NGO representative at the United Nations for the International Association of Applied Psychology and a member of the HUM Board of Advisors.