Harris Karnezis travels the world with her own theatre pedagogical method for children with autism

If you Google “CBD”, the results that come up are for … therapeutic hemp oils. From that, we keep the “therapeutic” part alone, to find that it is (also) an internationally groundbreaking method designed by a Greek woman.

Harris Karnezi started out as an actress and combined the art of theatre with the needs of children on the autism spectrum, creating Cognitive Behaviour Drama, a patent of her own. Through this, she addresses the needs of these children and proceeds with the necessary psycho-educational interventions.

“You are simultaneously creating a game, an adventure, through which the child can show and develop their talent. Each child gains something from the other, and so they learn to work as a team. At the same time, they are taught that everyone can be good at something, but no one is good at everything.”

I met Harris at the educational center she has been running in Athens for the past eight years. In the space, a backdrop has been set up that includes, among other things, a boat, the entrance to a … castle and lots of colored shutters on the walls. There she staged the exciting adventures that captivated the children.

I asked her to tell me about the psycho-educational program she has created and “travels” around the world in order to pass on her method. It is based on the needs of children with autism, aged 4 to 18, which she is called upon to meet through theatrical action with interactive stories in which these children are invited to take part, as a group.

“You make at the same time a game, an adventure, through which the child can show and develop his/her talent. Each child gains something from the other, so they learn to work as a team. At the same time, they are taught that everyone can be good at something, but by no means anyone is good at everything.”

She, along with her team of fellow therapists, starts with the child’s special interest and then moves on to motivating them. “You create an environment where each child feels comfortable to move and create. You create the conditions so that he feels the need to behave, rather than telling him to do it. It coordinates, seeks, reacts and ultimately works,” he clarifies.

But how exactly did he “marry” psychology with theater? She explains that she attempted to combine Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (psychology therapy), with drama.

Her book addresses, in addition to high-functioning children with autism, those with communication difficulties, selective alalia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). “All of the above have one thing in common: the difficulty of getting information from the environment. In these children, symbolic play does not come into their lives automatically. So they need a creative motivation,” he tells me.

On my visit to the training centre a few days before the interview, I had noticed that mostly boys were leaving the laboratory class. She explained to me that the ratio on the autism spectrum is, per 9 children, 1 girl to 8 boys.

“Usually the girls who attend the program are here for another reason, such as low self-esteem.” She lists, for example, “Of the 44 children who participated in our programs this year, 9 are girls. Of those, on the autism spectrum are only 3.”

I ask her what might motivate an actress to leave the theatre and dedicate herself to such a cause. After graduating from the Athens Drama School of George Theodosiades, Harris worked as an actress. She remembers that already, in the school, it was impressed upon the students that they would not find work because of the nature of the profession.

So she sought and did a postgraduate degree in Britain, which was in pedagogical theatre. That is, on theatre as a work tool in education to make learning more accessible and enjoyable for students. In fact, she was the only actress taking it at the time.

“I was thrilled, however I returned to Greece and worked as an actress in Municipal District Theatres. I then worked at the British Council for three years. When I met an Irish colleague from my postgraduate programme, I chatted with her and got to thinking about a PhD, while learning about a scholarship available on a project on ‘theatre for children with Asperger’s syndrome’. I researched for a month and after encountering various obstacles, I finally managed to get a scholarship from Trinity University in Ireland. I left everything, left Greece and did my PhD.”

Her fellow therapists are essentially actors, because they can precisely perceive the elements of drama and how the corresponding dramatic tension is created. Therein lies the answer to why acting is needed in what she has invented.

“In what we do there is a rhythm to the show, so it’s important that the people involved are also actors. The children, however, do not play a role in this quirky show, but are asked to solve some problems in real time. I remind her that children on the autism spectrum stay in their own thoughts and miss what is going on around them.”

Autism – Asperger’s syndrome – mental retardation

I take this opportunity to ask her to clarify what autism is, what Asperger’s syndrome is, and why these are often confused with mental retardation. What is being misunderstood? “There is confusion and often an association between autism and mental retardation, and that’s because there is a percentage of children with autism who also have mental retardation.

However, autism per se is about difficulty in communication, that is the social part alone. For the same reason, the diagnostic criteria no longer include the term ‘Asperger’s syndrome’ (high-functioning autism, without mental retardation), but only the ‘autism spectrum’ with levels.”

In each meeting-workshop, children are grouped according to their needs and ability to complement each other. “I take into account their age, their development, their ability to be able to co-exist, based on why they came. I create a story that I appreciate that will intrigue the children.”

An illustrative adventure – motivating children

“I find a ticket to the most magical zoo in the whole world. There we go with the kids and they create their little animal with crafts, feed it, play with it, invest in it. Then comes the problem, which is the extinction of the animals. So we mobilize the children by asking them if they are brave enough to search for the lost animals. This is followed by a series of lessons with the adventure of the search in … episodes.

Children will meet dragons, crocodiles, fairies. Obstacles. They will draw information to finally reach the goal: getting their little animals back. Amidst the adventure, there are the educational goals. Such as eye contact for the child, or finding the right moment to talk to the hero. In that moment, they are asked to solve problems.

In short, all the social skills that children struggle with are incorporated into the mission so that the children can ”work out”. So in time they will ”unlock” and realize how they can and preferably should function. And they will eventually understand, in practice, what these skills are good for.”

To explain the effectiveness of the method, I ask her to bring up an example. She refers to a child who was obsessed with the elevator. “He just wanted to see it and push the buttons by the door. He wanted to draw it, just talk about it. With this child you start individually, teaching him to explore things about the elevator as well.

He sees the floors he rides it to, the objects in the hallways. He’s fantastic at talking to a resident to deal with something other than the elevator. It broadens his scope. And slowly, he’s joining a group program. He eventually ends up sharing his experiences with other children and participating in expeditions, having ‘unlocked’ and activated.”

But how does Cognitive Behavioral Drama differ from simple play? “In the latter there are sometimes fragmentary games, whereas here children are asked to solve a mystery without feeling that it is an intervention. A mystery plot is created in which we integrate educational objectives, delimited on the basis of studies. There is an objective. Here, ‘having fun’ is not enough, but a sense of challenge, which the children themselves crave, prevails.”

I am in the main activity area of the workshops, and my eyes fall on a python doll and a puppet. Where and how are they being used? Pioneer Harris has also been involved in puppetry for a number of years, believing it to be something that is highly relevant to the needs of children on the autism spectrum.

“I’ve done puppetry, shadow puppetry, object theatre, full body puppetry and incorporated them as tools into the intervention method. This was both to refresh the method and to enrich our activities.”

But why is the clay doll old? “It took 95 hours to make Eliza. She is old because I find her more interesting that way, since it suggests a character with experience. With this particular doll we focus on children’s extra-verbal communication.

How they understand, for example, irony or sarcasm. They thus learn to read and perceive movements, body language and facial expressions. The puppet helps because it has a face that doesn’t change, but from its movement you can understand its expression.”

With the puppet, respectively, the method – as in occupational therapy – works on the detail in movement. It helps the child in training him to use his fingers for writing or tying his shoelaces. Children treat it as a game.

The method can also serve as a preventative against bullying, as it helps the child to defend against harassment by training him/her to communicate better. “In other words, work is done proactively, while targeted lessons about bullying are clearly being taught.”

“Parts of the method could be integrated into education in general, targeting students who bully others. We could potentially demystify it with an alternative approach. If the child sees experientially that it’s not someone’s prerogative to bully, they will act on it and stop. Let us not forget, moreover, that usually the victim can also become the perpetrator, in a vicious circle. Maybe we could prevent all of this.”

Having worked with more than 300 children on the spectrum, she observes that they have a much easier time communicating with their elders than with each other. The difficulty lies in developing a relationship with their peers. “This is where they make great friendships, which is one of our main goals, since it is an indication that the intervention is working.”

I wonder if a variation of this intervention could be proactively introduced into a school programme, so that it could be aimed at all children without exception? Does it make sense for them to attend such a workshop?

“It makes sense and I often ask for siblings or friends of the children to participate in the program. It helps the children outside the spectrum to act as role models. It also helps to generalize, then, their action at home. However, there are also those with low self-esteem who attend the programme and it is also effective for them,” she observes.

Does a woman with such an activity, however, have time for additional work and activities? Clearly, since she never relaxes.

Along with the workshops, Harris Karnezi conducts seminars of the method for speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, special educators, child psychiatrists, and child psychologists. Then, these professionals use it as a tool, respectively, in their interventions to make the whole process more creative.

This year in September she will present the model in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne), and there have been many training trips there as well as in Ireland, Belgium, Mexico, USA and other countries. As part of the training, there is close collaboration and ongoing discussion on extra-verbal communication, with Professor Tony Attwood, known worldwide as the “guru” for autism, who has even certified the authority of the method (CBD).

In the summer, the Cognitive Behavioral Drama Center is moving to a much larger space in the same area (Ampelokipi).

In the meantime, she is planning to publish a book in English about the method, and is releasing a book “Cognitive Behavioral Drama: A Psychopedagogical Model of Intervention for High-Functioning Children and Adolescents with Autism,” in which she is a co-author with two other scientists. This edition also marks the maiden appearance of the method on the “map” of treatments through art.

Otherwise, Harris is very often “with a suitcase in hand.”

This, to my mind, sums up the basic virtue that characterizes her: she travels, passing on her method from one end of the world to the other, while never stopping to educate herself.

Info:

*Harris Karnezi’s specially trained therapists-partners are: Yannis Filippou, Anna Hanioti, Athena Stamoulis, Konstantina Psomadelli.

**More information: www.cbdmethod.com