Art therapy aims to help those suffering illness

By: KIRBY FAIRFAX - For the North County Times | Saturday, September 16, 2006 6:10 PM PDT ∞

"It's not voodoo; it's not herbs; it's not invasive. Hey, let's just do some fingerpainting."

So says Maryam Davodi-Far on how she approaches people with the concept of making art as a means of improving their quality of life. Davodi-Far, director of the Carmel Valley-based Cancer Coping Center, explained that the group's mission is to provide creative outlets for patients to express the pain and fear experienced as a result of their illness.

"We go to waiting rooms, chemo units and support groups to offer them a distraction from the negativity of their situations as well as a way to explore their feelings and to sort through their stress and anxiety."

And although Davodi-Far stresses the therapeutic effects of the process, she stops short of calling it "therapy" because ---- although some of the volunteers who run the program are certified art therapists ---- "Many of the patients would shy away from anything with that label; it would put up a barrier. For one thing, they undergo so many forms of therapy, and, unfortunately, in our society, there is still a certain amount of stigma about those who need it."

But for many others, the use of art as a legitimate form of therapy has become an accepted and sought-after alternative or adjunct to the more traditional verbal approach to resolving psychological or emotional issues. Throughout San Diego County, approximately two dozen registered art therapists work in private practice, as well as in group settings of various sorts. To attain such a designation by the American Art Therapy Association, the individual must be a fully credentialed psychologist as well as a working artist.

Ellen Speert, director of the Encinitas-based California Center for Creative Renewal, known until last year as The Art Therapy Center of North County, explained her understanding of how the making of art under the guidance of a certified therapist can produce beneficial effects.

"It is a way of working with people that brings up the creative process as the vehicle for making connections with the unconscious. We use really basic materials to create something that enhances a spontaneous and playful experience, but that also serves as a container for those things that are really painful. It's a misconception that art therapy just provides a release that opens a person up. It's just as valuable on the other end, giving a safe structure for those things that might otherwise feel out of control.

"It also functions as a metaphor that tells a story or provides a map and gives the client a way to see themselves more clearly. ... And finally, it releases things that are blocked in the body, disconnections which are brought up through the use of the materials and the process itself," she continued.

Another way to look at it, Speert said, is that our experiences are stored as cellular memories that are often more accurately accessed through the making of images than strictly by means of verbal recall, which is often subject to unconscious revision and reinterpretation.

She also stressed that an important aspect of the healing process is the bond established between the client, the therapist and the group, depending on the setting. And those settings run the entire gamut represented by human need, according to Lisa Falls, another art therapist who also underscored the need for trust.

Traveling art therapy


Over the past year, she and several other therapists made multiple visits to a trailer park near Baton Rouge, La., that houses survivors of Hurricane Katrina to help victims try to make sense of their loss.

"What we keep hearing from the kids and families we work with there is always 'You keep coming back.' They have very little stability in their lives and it means a great deal to them that we keep returning. I don't know if we will be able to continue doing that, however. We are trying to get more funding," she added, noting that the original six trips were financed by Rosie O'Donnell's For All Kids Foundation.

Another segment of the population served by art therapists in our county includes the elderly at the long-term care facility Sunrise Assisted Living at LaCosta, where, according to program director Eugenia Welch, the choice of art materials and colors, as well as the positive attention they receive from the therapists, bring joy to the residents.

"Many of these people no longer have any control over anything in their lives. One of them told me, 'I can't be wrong here,' adding she loved that freedom."

Which is all well and good. But can this approach actually alter our physical beings in substantive ways? Apparently so, according to Noah Hass Cohen, program director of the art therapy department at Phillips Postgraduate Institute in Los Angeles. She noted this type of therapy is a form of body-mind intervention involving the endocrine, immune and nervous systems. She referred to the results of a clinical psychoneuroimmunological study reported in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management's February 2006 issue. The research was empirically driven and included pre- and post-test questionnaires given to the 50 participants to assess their responses. The results?

"They found meaningful relief of symptoms in cancer patients, including pain, anxiety, depression and fatigue. However, it is not enough to show a decrease of negative symptoms, but there must also be an increase in positive symptoms. The results were significant for a sense of well-being and better appetite," Cohen explained.

And although other studies done by researchers in the neurosciences to ascertain whether working with an art therapist can actually enhance survival time for the terminally ill did not yield such hopeful statistics, she noted that research consistently shows an improvement in the quality of life. Why this happens is not known conclusively, she said, although it may be related to the presence of another, sympathetic person and/or the release of oxytocin, a substance which brings a feeling of pleasure and reward and which is related to the sense of touch. It may also have to do with pathways in the brain.

"We're not sure why it helps. We're trying to find out why," she concluded.

Roots in psychology


The discipline began as a distinct field within the burgeoning world of psychology somewhere in the early decades of the past century, explained Falls, who coordinates the post-master's certificate program in art therapy at UC San Diego's community extension.

"Its roots go back to such early diagnostic tools as the 'House, Tree, Person' and Rorschach Tests," where the client would interpret images or create their own, based on a projective set of exercises the therapist would suggest.

The interpretation and assessment of the client's responses were originally based on a standardized vocabulary of symbols, an approach that has expanded and evolved over time. Although the concept that specific images represent certain experiences or relationships within the life of the individual remains one of the core premises of this modality, it by no means defines it.

"I may ask a client to draw their family doing something together and look for connections, but it's not that simplistic. My method varies depending on the needs of the client," Falls added.

And for Speert, it is less about the therapist telling the client what her professional expertise may reveal than about the client discovering answers revealed by the work itself.

"My approach has changed over the years. I am less directive and more trusting of the intuition of my clients now. I view myself more as a witness to their process. I am experiencing a deepening spiritual connection to this work."

She facilitates women's groups and holds retreats for various organizations at her garden studio in Encinitas, and said that she finds herself more and more drawn to emphasizing creativity and the enhancing of life, rather than just helping people deal with their pathologies and pain. Her clients, all of whom have experienced more than their share of the latter, have included county adoption social workers; the staff of A Reason to Survive, an organization which helps troubled people of all ages, including children awaiting placement in the foster-care system; and International Survivors of Torture. IST has 36 chapters around the world, but the one in San Diego is the largest because our ports draw many refugees, she explained.

The art therapist, who designed the program at UCSD, noted she wished there were more career and educational opportunities, as the need is great. However, the program has very stringent psychology and art requirements; few schools offer programs at lower than post-graduate level; and the managed-care system of medical insurance's unsympathetic view of the discipline has leveled off what had been a growing field for the past decades, she said. Despite those disincentives, however, CareerBuilders.com has listed the position of art therapist as one of the top ten "hot jobs" for 2007, Falls observed.

In the words of Pamela Underwood, a therapist in the field of expressive arts (which is an intermodal offshoot of traditional art therapy and includes the use of music, drama, poetry and dance in addition to the visual arts), "Art is maintenance for the psyche."

And apparently for the rest of us as well.

First name only. Comments including last names, contact addresses, e-mail addresses or phone numbers will be deleted. Attempts to misrepresent your identity or impersonate any person will not be approved. All comments are screened before they appear online, so please keep them brief. Comments reflect the views of those commenting and not necessarily those of the North County Times or its staff writers. Click here to view additional comment policies.