Perspective
The Healing Arts – A New Approach in Supportive Care
By Nancy A. Ferrari, National Correspondent
Most clinicians will admit that healing is both a science and an art. But can art itself be a part of healing?
The role of art in cancer treatment is just now emerging as a field of inquiry in science. Clinician-investigators at Cancer Treatment Centers of America are beginning to be active in the innovative field.
According to a recent report in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, researchers have found that one-hour art therapy sessions yielded significant reductions in eight of nine symptoms measured by the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS). These included reduced scores for pain, anxiety, and fatigue. The authors observed that study volunteers reported significant fatigue right before the art therapy session, but described feeling notably less tired afterward. Patients participating in the art therapy found it "distracting and calming," and many requested additional sessions. Several felt that creating art provided a sense of control and a way to express their feelings.
Katherine Puckett, a licensed clinical social worker, and the national director of mind body medicine for CTCA, said that there are many ways to encourage and facilitate the process of self-expression for patients. "It may be ‘safe’ and nurturing time with a mind body therapist that allows patients to feel comfortable expressing anything and everything. Beyond offering a counseling relationship, we provide many other modalities through which patients can express themselves," she says.
One of those ways is a class called mindful beading. In a quiet, peaceful setting, individuals create a string of "tranquility beads" they can take with them. Group facilitator Tania Williams described her experience with a mother and daughter who both took the class. "The daughter came to me after the group, where they had spent an hour making tranquility beads for one another, and said, ‘Thank you, we have never made anything for each other before. This means so much to us.’ Through beading we had created a different way for the mother and daughter to connect and express their feelings," said Williams.
Simple, Powerful
Puckett told another story about the effects of this simple yet powerful activity. "A mother with young children at home made a strand of beads for her daughter so that each time the mom was at the hospital, her daughter, who remained back home, would have something to remember her mom by," said Puckett. She also said that a month or so later the woman came back to the group so that she could make a strand for her son who had asked for one.
This kind of work with cancer patients and caregivers is being eyed in academia too, and what is learned there informs the work of practitioners. In Britain, biochemist, playwright, and artist, Lizzie Burns is combining her academic science background and artistic interest and talents in her work with the U.K. Medical Research Council. Her focus is creating artwork of her own and developing art-related projects to inform the public about medical research and the hope it brings. Bringing Medicine to Life is just such a project; its goal is to offer patients in clinical trials the opportunity to express their feelings through art. Dr. Burns explained, "I was keen to run a project on the importance of clinical trials and rather than creating my own artwork felt it would be more meaningful if art was created by patients themselves. The initial aim was to create public awareness of clinical trials but it soon became apparent that patients benefitted from the opportunity to express themselves and to do something different and fun in hospital."
Through Bringing Medicine to Life, Dr. Burns is working with patients in the European and American Osteosarcoma Study Group (EURAMOS) Trial-1, a randomized trial examining several new approaches to post-operative chemotherapy for patients with osteosarcoma. Through artwork, patients get to share their cancer story, including how they came to participate in the clinical trial. Thirty-four year old Syed talks about his decision to enroll in the EUROMOS study in both words and pictures. "My uncle who is a doctor told me to go for it. He said that it’s a good trial to go on. I said alright, nothing to lose and plus if it helps anyone, benefits anyone in the future, you can’t be selfish all your life. You can give back something to society."[1]
One patient, aged 27, said, "When I was told my cancer was very rare, I told him I was never in a lucky draw and was never given a prize, but this was a surprise."
When asked what the EUROMOS investigators might learn from the project, Dr. Burns said that she hoped that having patients share their thoughts and feelings through art would "move investigators and remind them about the patient's whole life and their emotions."
Puckett said that CTCA has offered both art and writing workshops, and will likely do so again. "In Healing Through Drawing, the mind body therapist makes suggestions about what to draw. For example, participants may be asked to draw three pictures, one of as he or she is now, one of his or her biggest problem, and one of the person as he or she would like to be," said Puckett.
Therapist Rachana Vettickal has witnessed patients see and feel their emotions-and address emotional pain that they have kept inside-through the drawings. "In my groups, patients have seen things in their drawings that can help them move past a difficult time. In general, I would say most are able to deal with their emotions through the group. It is a wonderful way to help patients look inward and begin to have a better understanding of themselves," said Vettickal.
-- Nancy Ferrari is a national correspondent for Cancer Treatment Research, and is, based in Boston.
[1] Quoted from a pamphlet by the author with permission.
[1] Reproduced from pamphlet with permission.