What does he do?
I favor the grieving process for the chronically or terminally ill.
For loss?
Of health, of a physical function, of one of the senses, of the existential sense…
For what purpose?
Alleviate suffering, make the patient happy, return some meaning to their existence.
And how is this achieved?
Through art.
What art?
Any vehicle for emotional expression will do: drawing, painting, sculpture, writing, poetry, sewing, singing, music…
It is valid even if you are not sick.
Yes, every artist channels their moods with their art: art is therapeutic, art relieves, reconciles, appeases…
Do we all have an artist in us?
We can all externalize emotions, if we allow ourselves to, and share them: yes.
Would simply talking be a way?
Yes. An old woman without sight tells me memories of her life: I transcribe. I read them, we retouch. We already have seven chapters.
Does she feel better doing this?
By doing this, she is giving meaning to passages of her life… and this pacifies her.
Tell me about another patient.
My grandmother Rosa: “Sílvia, use me as a guinea pig”, she said to me when she found out that she was founding Art e Palliativo (with Neus, Laura, Carolina, Flor, Marce, Jaume and Núria), my project as a final thesis for my Social Education degree. I also trained in art therapy in Bristol and clinical research in art, creativity and health.
How are health and art linked?
Art is metaphor and metaphor helps us to communicate something intimate, and especially in critical emotional trances.
We are symbolic animals, I understand.
Symbols channel emotions: anger, sadness, joy, disgust, fear… And surprise.
Surprise?
“I can still create!”, the patients are surprised when we encourage them and they throw themselves into doing something, whatever it is.
What do they do, for example?
To draw. Paint. embroider to model To sing. recite Frame photos. Make bracelets with jewelry. origami…
And write?
Write a poem, a story, a diary, a memoir. Or make a case for the mobile, with a name. Or arrange some flowers. Or customize a strike!
Do these little works really help?
You thought that your illness has taken you away from life, that nothing makes sense anymore, that there is nothing to do… And it’s not like that!
Because you can create something – is that it?
You can create, and if you create you feel that you regain control over something in your life: feeling this mastery is very healing!
Recover something lost?
You had lost and now you win. Because we never judge his work: it’s all about doing. Whatever you want! Everything will be OK.
A small big win.
Even if it’s just that you feel that you choose which color you will use, and with what intention and to which person you will give the drawing.
Did you learn some of this at home?
The father is a musician; the mother, nursing assistant. And then there is my sister Laura: she was born with a rare undiagnosed disease and her cognitive and verbal delay has taught me a lot.
What has it taught him?
She can sense my emotions just by looking at me! We didn’t need words to relate. And we drew together, we stuck together…
This will surely bring you skills with your patients…
I had one the other day with a neurological condition that went downhill after a virus – he wouldn’t react to anything…
what did you do
Talk to him kindly and tickle him with the tickling stick.
Tickling stick? What is?
A stick lined with foam with colored feathers at the tip. He took it from me and tickled me… and laughed!
Do any items help more than others?
The most infallible tool is tenderness. He really likes a white doll in the shape of a dog and a kitten: the patient paints them as his long-lost pet…
And his grandmother Rosa? She offered herself to him as a guinea pig, she told me…
We made origami together and gave those birds and penguins as gifts… “Every gift must be accompanied by a handwritten note!”, she taught me.
Beautiful wisdom.
He instructed me to locate a photo of each family member, put a beautiful frame on it and give it to them as a gift… He reconciled knots, accepted the end… The grandmother left in peace.
