As part of the Creative Coping workshop series for cancer patients held at Saint Vincent's Comprehensive Cancer Center, Erica Rooney recently led an art therapy workshop for cancer patients. For more information on the Creative Coping workshops, please contact Shayne Small at 212/604-6096.

What is art therapy?
Art therapy is a cross between creating art and doing therapy. There are two major strains: one is the art process itself being therapeutic. When you do art, it's good for you. The other strain is using the art to assess where a client is and to understand him or her better. The client uses the material to express something he or she might not be able to put into words. The therapist can then guide the client toward the next art project that might be appropriate for him or her. Art therapists often mix and match those strains in the art therapy process. The basic belief is that non-verbal expression and self-awareness can bring people to things that are very deep and that may be inexpressible in words. Sometimes when we talk we actually obscure things. With art, you don't have to use words to express ideas. Art therapy can also include dance, music and drama. Art therapy tries to involve the whole person, including both the right and left side of the brain.

What specific kinds of techniques do you use when working with cancer patients or those with other illnesses?
When you are working with someone who has a medical issue, you have to be very sensitive to things that might be too clinically reminiscent of something they don't want to deal with. Sometimes body issues can be very difficult. A person's body, which previously was an ally, can sometimes feel like an enemy during an illness. Materials can help a person cope with difficult body issues. Some materials are more releasing than others. Finger painting breaks down ego boundaries. Depending on the stage of acceptance people are in with their illness, you may want to use materials that build up who they are rather than break that down. Materials such as pencils or collage that give more of a sense of control may be helpful. Clay can work both ways: it can calm a person because it releases so much in the fingertips, or it can make someone feel too much of a sense of amorphous flesh. You have to gauge your approach according to the stage of a person's treatment and the stage of his or her acceptance.

It's also important to include the caregivers in this process. The children of the patient, or the parents of the patient, if a child, also benefit from art therapy. They are dealing with the illness as well as the patient; how they cope can help the patient. One of my main interests is family therapy. No one exists in a vacuum. If you change one part of the structure of the family, it will automatically affect the other parts. Family art therapy is very beneficial when dealing with an illness that can be life threatening. It can help people communicate with each other without words, and allows them to just share time with each other. When you work with an art material, you create something you can take with you. This art object can be comforting, stimulate introspection, provide stability. You have something left that you can look at every day. It's like looking at a part of yourself and allows you to reflect back on the time you created it with other people.

You led an art therapy workshop as part of the Creative Coping series at SVCCC. What was that like?
Shayne Small has developed a series of workshops on alternative healing. Shayne is a nutritionist and is attuned to ways to heal the whole person when dealing with cancer treatment. Doctors are now aware of so much more-they know that music affects pain levels and that stress affects the immune system and that there are many ways of working that augment healing. Shayne holds workshops each month, and the series so far has included yoga, reiki, visualization, massage, and art therapy. These workshops broaden the cancer center's healing capacity and give patients so many more opportunities to explore their own healing. Six adults attended the workshop I led. We began with wooden blocks - adding materials to the six sides such as papers, paint, clay, fabric, collage pictures. I chose wood because it is a natural material, weathered and durable. It even has a fragrance. I suggested that people introduce themselves after they did their art. When people were getting started, some were concerned that they couldn't do it because they weren't "artists". I said that art therapy is not about creating a beautiful work of art, but about engaging in a process that is expressive, fun, and activates other parts of the mind, body and spirit. Each person came with unique abilities. People shared and talked as they worked or worked silently; the group found its own rhythm between talking and silence. Everyone was invited to talk about their art at the end or let their art speak for them. Everyone chose to talk about their projects at the end, which I see as a sign of trust that had developed. Someone who was most fearful of using the materials spoke about her process - by the end, she was very pleased with what she had made. She said the project made her happy and she realized how important it was to "have fun.". I was thrilled this happened for her. Art therapy gives an ongoing benefit-the project in this workshop was a cube everyone could take home. It will stay in their lives and they can continue to work with it - look at it, turn it so as to be able to see a different side. Plus, it stands on its own, is solid and durable. My ultimate goal as an art therapist is for people I work with to continue to do any kind of art in their daily lives. If someone wants to draw or paint, or pick up a piece of clay, or sing, just because it makes him or her feel good, that's good. The world would be a better place if everybody had a paint brush!