Actress Amanda Root tells Sophie Farrah about the foundation of her charity Talitha Arts
Alexandra Conil Lacoste
There is no doubt that actress and Teddington resident Amanda Root has had an illustrious career. Well known for starring in the 1995 BBC film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, she also played the role of Miranda alongside Richard Lumsden in the 2004 British TV comedy All About Me, and was the voice of Sophie in the 1989 animated film of Roald Dahl’s The BFG. She has also worked frequently with the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing the role of Juliet to Daniel Day-Lewis’s Romeo, and Cressida to Ralph Fiennes’ Troilus, but these days she is putting her creative skills to a different use…
In 2010, Amanda founded Talitha Arts – a non-profit-making group of professional artists and arts therapists who are passionate about supporting the recovery of individuals through the use of arts therapy. Currently, Talitha Arts works across the UK and overseas, helping survivors of slavery, trafficking and abuse, as well as those who have experienced domestic violence and those living with the effects of dementia.
“It all began when I heard a talk by Gary Haugen, who set up International Justice Mission. The talk was about girls who had been trafficked, forced into a cave and beaten until they complied,” explains Amanda.
“They showed a picture of these young girls being released into the daylight from this cave… I will never forget that picture. I’d always had a desire to work within the creative arts in a therapeutic way, but when I saw that image I just thought, this is it – this is where we must go. This is where the creative arts would be so beneficial.”
Less than a year after hearing the talk Amanda had secured a pilot project in India, working with International Justice Mission as part of its rehabilitation of trafficking survivors. After travelling to Mumbai on her own to do a recce, Amanda returned with a music therapist for Talitha’s first programme.
“It was definitely a challenge, but by the end of the three-week programme the girls who were so inhibited and withdrawn to start with, and so fearful, were all laughing and playing. The transformation was extraordinary! They were like different children; they had recaptured something of their identity, their value, and their sense of childhood,” she explains.
“These girls had been told that they were worth nothing and that they were meant to be serving men, so to be given a new identity where they recognise that they do have value and a contribution to make is extraordinarily empowering.”
These powerful results are down to what Amanda describes as the Talitha Approach – two- or three-week programmes involving a series of integrative arts workshops run by a team of trained volunteers, including dancers, actors, musicians, singers, visual artists and arts therapists.
“A dance movement therapist will use verbal therapy but they are also trained in movement therapy, so they know how trauma is held in the body and how we can release that. A visual arts therapist is trained in how we put down images or use clay to release those feelings, and explore ourselves in new ways.
“This creative process is a means for us to explore things; the girls and women we work with don’t want to sit down and talk about the trauma, but they can still engage with people and interact, and that builds a sense that they are still worth something.”
Whilst continuing with Talitha’s work in India, Amanda also began to explore the huge potential of the organisation’s style of arts therapy and the multitude of different people it could help. The group has since expanded its reach to work with children affected by prostitution in Bolivia, as well as women who have experienced domestic violence and people living with dementia here in the UK. There are currently plans afoot for Talitha ‘hubs’ to serve local communities in Norwich, Birmingham and Jersey, and Amanda would also like to explore taking Talitha Arts into prisons and hospices.
“That passion that I had – that the arts can help so many people – didn’t limit it to girls who had been abused. Following a successful pilot last year we’re continuing our work at Dalemead Care Home in Twickenham, with people living with dementia. The residents that we’ve worked with there are extraordinary and we’ve all had our hearts touched by working in that environment.” she says.
“Whether you start off a drum beat and somebody who is withdrawn with dementia starts to engage and dance with you, or whether it’s a young girl whose got trauma and she starts to do the movement because that’s a way of communication, which is non-verbal, you are giving people a way in which they can communicate, contribute and be part of a community.”
At the end of last year, Amanda was awarded a Point of Light Award by Prime Minister Theresa May, which recognises outstanding volunteers who are making a change in their community.
“I was actually at an event and Sandi Toksvig suddenly introduced me to the Prime Minister and just said – ‘talk about Talitha!’ and so I bumbled away!” Amanda laughs.
“I was really flattered and chuffed to receive the award, and what a great thing it is! It recognises people’s work within communities, people who are doing stuff on a day-to-day basis that no one knows about really, and recognises what they are contributing.”
- For more information on Talitha, visit: talitha.org.uk
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