Elva Palo (MSc, RP, RCAT, DTATI), Wellspring Birmingham Gilgan House’s Art Therapy Program Leader, shares with us why art therapy is so important as a healing process throughout your cancer journey.
I’ve had the opportunity to work as a visual artist, art educator, and art therapist, and I’ve come to believe in the healing power of the creative process for anyone.
I feel very fortunate to be in the field of art therapy. For the past twenty years working as a Program Leader at Wellspring Birmingham Gilgan House and Chinguacousy, I’ve met many expressive artists during group art therapy.
Bruce Moon, a well-known American clinical art therapist, artist and author, once said, “It is the task of the scientist to theorize and prove the way things are. It is the task of the artist to express the way things feel.” Our goal in Art Therapy at Wellspring is to use colour and shape to help people living with cancer and their loved ones express what they are feeling through their cancer journey. It’s about trusting your intuition- and it takes a few sessions to get used to this idea. I have seen new members take a tour of Wellspring BGH, and after they see our gallery wall which is a beautiful space where we hang the paintings of art program participants, they are interested in learning more. They will come to the door of the art therapy room, and often they say, “Oh I like art but I can’t draw” or, “I’m not artistic”, or one of my favourites, “I just know how to draw stick people.” But stick people are universal- they can be shown anywhere in the world and would be immediately recognized and understood. For thousands of years, art has also been a symbolic language, including stick people. It speaks to everyone. Even the image of a stick person tells a story.
During our seven-week art therapy session cycle, I take members through the “studio experience” meaning new materials are introduced every session. During each two-hour program, expressive art supports the psychotherapeutic process of using colours and materials to communicate feelings, thoughts and ideas that may be too difficult for words. To encourage this exploration, members can experiment with different materials like chalk pastel, oil pastel, water colour options, markers, natural earthenware clay, synthetic polymer clay, plaster gauze, modelling paste, and acrylic paint, to name a few. They also have the option to experiment with printmaking methods, collage and phototherapy, using images of artists’ works…whatever fits for them as the right expressive companion. There is no right way or wrong way to do expressive art. And sometimes we even have a Bob Ross moment where we have “happy accidents”. Often, I hear, “I didn’t mean to do that, but I really like how it looks.”
The process requires letting go of the inner critic and giving oneself permission to create from an authentic, intuitive energy. Interestingly, children don’t question how or why they draw; they turn to the supplies and let the creative process flow. As we move along in life, we tend to lose that sense of play or spontaneity. Play is not frivolous as some might think, but a way to relax intellectual control. I love the story about a time an art therapist, arriving at a new friend’s house for dinner, is introduced at the door to the host’s 5-year-old daughter. The host says, “This person teaches grown-ups how to draw.” The child pauses and asks, “Why, did they forget?”
Maybe we forget the value of our intuitive, spontaneous side, which is often trampled by adult responsibilities and challenges. We need to gently nurture our positive energy and emotions. That’s why the studio experience works so well for members of the Wellspring art therapy program.
Ultimately, healing does not happen in a vacuum, but in the presence of others. The support and empathy that each Wellspring group member brings to the art therapy program are enhanced by the creative process witnessed by each person. New thoughts about each other’s images often relate to similarities in feelings brought on by the challenges of their cancer experiences. The idea with the program is to create a special, sacred space that allows for a deep understanding of how each person finds a new way to channel emotions or tap into a new source of energy. The art images become the portal to open discussion and share in a supportive way.
Whether expressive, meditative or symbolic, art therapy can help to communicate, connect and enhance the Wellspring member experience. The words of the French post-impressionist artist Henri Matisse resonate with this: “I dream of art as balance and serenity…like a good armchair in which to rest.”
 One of the pioneers of art therapy, Edith Kramer said that creating an artistic product expresses an inner experience of the artist. This saying helped me to create my painting “Spirit Blanket” – which was a message to me of a need for comfort. I was working with someone who was going through a very difficult experience living with symptoms of chronic illness. His experience moved me deeply and I came home to create this piece. Inspired by a quiet night on a farm up north, I began making marks on darker paper. The gentle snowflakes and stars blended into a quiet peacefulness. I started to create something about this feeling of calmness and support that I needed at the time. The stars formed a constellation that seemed like the shape of a person with a comforting blanket. The size was symbolically large. A moose figure appeared dwarfed by the image. The process helped me to feel grounded. Edith Kramer refers to what psychologists call a person’s inner world: thoughts, wishes, ideas and emotions. Images that people create can mirror how they see the world based on their feelings, or they can be about how they wish to feel, including calmness, balance, or joy. Sometimes, the images can evoke memories or experiences that can provide insight or clarity about confused feelings. |
