Art therapist Rosalie Frankel with 11-year-old patient Jaylin Israel-Tompson

Art therapist Rosalie Frankel with xi-twelvemonth-onetime patient Jaylin Israel-Tompson after completing an art therapy session

Twelve-year-old Selphie Luann Enderle has been in and out of Seattle Children'southward Hospital since she was 3 years old for treatment of cystic fibrosis. While the long hospital stays can be hard, there is one activity that she always looks frontwards to – her art therapy sessions. The joy these sessions bring her is axiomatic by her reaction to the sight of art therapist Helena Hillinga Haas budgeted her hospital room with a colorful cart in tow, overflowing with markers, crayons and construction paper.

"You're here!" she exclaims every bit she jumps out of bed, throwing her hands in the air and running to the door. "I've been waiting."

Selphie is ane the many patients at Seattle Children's who do good from the unique therapy that compliments traditional medicine past providing patients with a artistic outlet to express themselves, process emotions and reconnect to the playfulness of childhood. Every bit art therapists, Hillinga Haas and Rosalie Frankel are trained to develop patient'southward art skills while likewise focusing on their emotional needs.

"We work to accost the mind-body connection and assistance in the healing process past helping our patients relax and express their emotions in an enjoyable way," said Frankel, who began the art therapy programme at Seattle Children'southward xv years ago. "Our goal is e'er to help our patients find moments of comfort by providing them with this cathartic outlet that also often serves as a welcomed distraction."

A rainbow of benefits

Hillinga Haas explains that the benefits of fine art therapy are vast and can be unique to each patient. For many kids, she said, information technology helps to normalize the experience of being in the infirmary by reconnecting them with who they are and encouraging them to think about their interests beyond the infirmary walls. She said information technology can also be a phenomenal tool for communication and relationship building, particularly for nonverbal patients.

"The hospital can be a hard place for kids where words tin be hard to come up past," said Hillinga Haas. "It's incredible what you can larn from a child based on their drawings and past seeing what they may experience, dear, miss or fear in that moment. Their art can start vital conversations that tin can help usa and the child'southward care squad meliorate address their emotional needs."

Frankel adds that it can also serve a functional purpose for kids who may be working to rehabilitate their arm or paw because activities similar drawing or molding dirt encourage them to use that limb and build strength. Even when a patient is having a difficult solar day or doesn't feel well, he or she is usually very receptive to art, Frankel said.

"In an environment where patients are mostly passive to what'southward going on effectually them, kids really resonate with an action that gives them choices and control to create whatever comes to heed," said Frankel.

Patient'south share their perspective

No one understands the benefits of art therapy improve than patients like Selphie who experience them start-hand.

"I love how fine art can actually assistance capture and remind me of my happy moments, like taking a film," Selphie said with a grinning. "It also helps to calm me down and it makes my imagination go wild."

For eleven-twelvemonth-old Jaylin Israel-Tompson, who is beingness treated for osteosarcoma, he said art "helps relax him and makes him happy." His mom, Robyn Israel-Cox, said not only does the art burnish his twenty-four hour period, just information technology also serves as a window into his thoughts and emotions.

"It'south amazing to come across the transformation in him after he works with Rosalie – he's e'er left feeling content and much calmer," said State of israel-Cox. "We find that he communicates so much through his drawings where whatever is on his heed comes out on paper. He'll draw images where he is in control of something similar a machine because he has little command of what's happening in his real life, or he'll draw animals that are eating his favorite food because he is having a difficult fourth dimension eating that twenty-four hours."

For Frankel and Hillinga Haas, providing therapy in the form of art and seeing the profound effect it has non simply on the patients, but also on the parents, is an incredibly rewarding feel.

"We just experience so privileged to provide these moments of joy and condolement to our patients," said Frankel. "We also love seeing parents smile as they spotter their kids laughing and having fun, especially during such a hard time. Art is powerful and everyday we see information technology work in wonderful means."

To see Frankel and Hillinga Haas and the fine art therapy program in action, spotter the Male monarch 5 Evening Magazine segment.

If you lot'd like to support the art therapy program at Seattle Children'south, please visit our donation page and choose to give to the "Therapeutic Play Fund."