What do you do for a living?
I favor the process of their mourning for the loss of chronically or terminally ill patients.
For loss?
Of health, of a physical function, of some of the senses, of the existential sense…
For what purpose?
Alleviate suffering, make the patient happy, restore some meaning to his existence.
And how do you achieve that?
Through art.
What art?
Any vehicle of emotional expression works: drawing, painting, sculpture, writing, poetry, sewing, singing, music…
It is valid even if you are not sick.
Yes, every artist channels his moods with his art: art is therapeutic, art soothes, reconciles, appeases…
Do we all have an artist inside?
We can all express emotions, if we allow ourselves, and share them: yes.
Would just talking be an avenue?
Yes. An old woman without sight tells me memories of her life: I transcribe. I read them to you, we retouched. We have seven chapters.
Does she feel better with this?
By doing this, he is giving meaning to passages in his life… and that pacifies him.
Tell me about another patient.
My grandmother Rosa: “Sílvia, use me as a guinea pig”, she told me when she found out that I was founding Arte Paliativo (with Neus, Laura, Carolina, Flor, Marce, Jaume and Núria), my project as a final project for the Social Education degree. I also trained in art therapy at Bristol and clinical research in art, creativity and health.
How are health and art linked?
Art is a metaphor and the metaphor helps us to communicate something intimate, and especially in critical emotional moments.
We are symbolic animals, I understand.
The symbols channel emotions: anger, sadness, joy, disgust, fear… And surprise.
Surprise?
“I can still create!” patients are surprised when we encourage them and they jump into doing something, anything.
What do they do, for example?
Draw. Paint. Embroider. To model. Sing. Recite. Frame a photo. Ward some bracelets with jewelry. origami…
And write?
Write a poem, a story, a diary, some memoirs. Or make a mobile phone case, with a name. Or arrange some flowers. Or customize a nightlight!
Do these small works help so much?
You have believed that your illness has separated you from life, that nothing makes sense anymore, that there is nothing to do… And it is not so!
Because you can create something, right?
You can create, and if you create something you feel you regain control over something in your life – feeling that mastery is very healing!
Do you recover something lost?
You had lost and now you win. Because we never judge his work: it’s about doing. Whatever you want! Everything will be fine.
A big little win.
Even if it is only that you feel that you control what color you will use, and with what intention and to whom you will give that drawing of yours.
Did you learn any of this at home?
My father is a musician; my mother, nursing assistant. And then there is my sister Laura: she was born with an undiagnosed rare disease and her cognitive and verbal delay has taught me a lot.
What has it taught you?
She senses my emotions just by looking at me! We don’t need words to relate. And we have drawn together, we have stuck…
That will surely give you skills with your patients…
The other day I had one with a neurological disease who suffered a slump after a virus attack: he didn’t react to anything…
What did you do?
Talk to him kindly and tickle him with the tickle stick.
Tickle stick? What is it?
A stick lined with foam with colorful feathers at the tip. He took it from my hand and he tickled me…and he laughed!
Does one object help more than another?
The most infallible tool is tenderness. He really likes a white doll in the shape of a puppy and a kitten: the patient paints them as his longed-for pet…
And your grandmother Rosa? She offered herself to him as a guinea pig, she told me…
We made origami together and gave away those paper bow ties, and penguins… “Every gift must be accompanied by a handwritten note!”, she taught me.
Beautiful wisdom.
And at the end my grandmother entrusted me to locate a photo of each family member, put a nice frame on it and give it to them… In this way, I reconciled pending knots, accepted their end… And my grandmother left in peace.
