Cancer: The Benefits Of Art Therapy

Shallow is Better Cancer. How interesting that a six-letter word can strike fear in deepest part of a person’s heart, alter an entire life plan, and bring a sense of uncertainty and hopelessness in a matter of minutes. Today, cancer is a word that is used often, as it affects almost every life in some way. Although the diagnosis is a common one, the process that each person takes to cope with cancer is anything but common. The graphic novel Cancer Made Me A Shallower Person: A Memoir in Comics written by Miriam Engelberg shows her journey with cancer from the time she is given her diagnosis. Engelberg is open about her struggles and fears in coming to grips with her diagnosis, but she is able to communicate in a way that shows humor can be found in even the most difficult situation. Although she is clear about the difficulty of being diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of forty-three, she resists the temptation to fall into self-pity and hopelessness. Although the story focuses on the author trying to see the lighter moments in her battle, the illustrations seem to also show the fear, uncertainty, and depression that come with a cancer diagnosis. Throughout the novel, Elgelberg does a great job of showing the struggles of keeping a light-hearted attitude while coping with cancer, and the illustrations help capture both the seriousness and humor of the story.

Art therapy is a mental health profession that uses a creative process of art making to improve and enhance the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of individuals of all ages. Art therapy is based on the belief that the creative process involved in artistic self-expression helps people resolve conflicts and problems, develop interpersonal skills, manage behavior, reduce stress, increase self-esteem and self-awareness. Younger children may find it scary or difficult to answer direct questions in a clinical setting. Art therapy and phototherapy are better than

The consensus regarding art is art is for artists, or it’s merely a hobby. But, what if art could alleviate symptoms of depression, or help those with PTSD? All of us has had to deal with some form of psychological issues in our lives. Whether causation of the problem is

Art therapy is a Multi-Functional Psychological therapy that helps the mental mind in connecting things that are disconnected like a patient with alzheimer's where the patient's medial temporal lobe that’s the part of the brain that controls memory. The medial temporal lobe is vital in the brain because that is where the brain recollects the memories and stores them. When you get older the lobe gets weaker in which causes it to disconnect thus causing “memory loss” or dementia. In art therapy we like to cause a visual reconnection of that nerve so in which a patient then can remember more but in a visual stance as in some people like to look at photographs to visually which allows memories to reconnect. These programs are put into place to help anyone with mental issues they are put in place just to help.

Service Learning Project Pertaining to Goods Drive for Child Advocacy Center For this service learning project, my group and I organized a goods drive. We placed donation boxes around Denton for art-therapy supplies. The group also held an event on November 6, 2017, at Texas Woman’s University to encourage students to

Childhood cancer takes a tremendous toll on a family in general. It can be absolutely catastrophic without knowledge of the various strategies and coping tools successfully used by other families with histories of childhood cancer. Every year over 3,500 children are diagnosed with cancer (Yoak, 38). The news is devastating to a family. They are faced with a life altering event and the difficult task of helping the child understand what is happening to their bodies. No doubt the doctors and hospital staff will be able to facilitate most of the explanations of the diagnosis and treatment plan. However, I would like to enlighten the readers of this paper about the coping mechanisms utilized by many families to help them to survive this illness.

Years ago, coloring was for children. Although occasionally an adult who was babysitting would color with the child, that adult wouldn 't normally pick up a coloring book on their own. Recently, a new trend in coloring books for adults has changed the way adults relieve stress. Coloring books for adults has reached an all-time high with many books on bestseller lists. While this may be a fun hobby for some, others find serious stress relief from coloring inside these books.

Section One: Saige Weeks Cancer is the leading disease that causes death in children under the age of 15 (Toro, 2001). Every year, approximately 9,000 children are diagnosed with cancer. Almost 1,500 children die because of the disease (Toro, 2001). Despite the the death rate of 1,500 children per year, the number of children surviving cancer is increasing; the current survival rate is over 70 percent (Toro, 2001). Although the rates of survivors have increased due to the invasive and radical treatment, there are many medical, physical, psychological, cognitive and neuropsychological effects that coincide with the life saving treatment. This effects can have a lasting impact on children (Rae & Sullivan, 2005).

1) Art Therapy Program To test whether an art therapy program is effective at reducing recidivism in serious violent and chronic juvenile offenders, a large control group, and a large experimental group was randomly chosen and assigned. The control group was given an alternative form of treatment (other than art therapy, they were shown videos of violent and chronic juvenile offenders participating in art therapy programs) to act as the baseline for how well those who receive actual art therapy might benefit. Art therapy ran in 1-hour sessions, and videos ran for 1 hour.

As established in the National Cancer Institute, “Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide for children and adolescents in America, accounting for more than 91,250 children that lose their lives to this disease” (National Cancer Institute). Cancer is not considered a terminal illness, but more of a chronic illness because of the intense treatment that the individual has to endure. As a result of this treatment the chances of survival for children suffering from pediatric cancer has increased around 80 percent. The increment in the survival rate has made it possible for many parents to not have to go through the acceptance that they are about to lose their child to a terminal illness, but have coping strategies that will make them adapt to the fear of the reoccurrence of that illness. This illness has a great impact on the patient as well as the family because not only do they have to adapt to this illness physically, but also mentally. Research has shown that there are both short term and long term effects that come into effect when the child is both in treatment and also years after the treatment. The type of cancers that these adolescents have to endure range from leukemia, brain tumors and other cancerous tumors that have appeared in recent medical studies. These tumors can either be benignant, an acute case that is non-cancerous or malignant, a cancerous case that will need intense treatment over an extended period of time.While many would say there is more of a

However, art therapy is typically the most in psychiatric wards, either individually or in groups. It is currently emerging is family art therapy, and used a lot in the education system, focusing on children who are learning disabled, mentally challenged, emotionally disturbed, socially disadvantaged. According to the AATA, art therapy is practiced in mental health, rehabilitation, medical, educational, forensic, wellness, private practice and community settings. Within these settings, art therapy can be applied to an extremely diverse client population in individual, couples, family, and group therapy formats. Art therapy is an effective treatment for people experiencing developmental, medical, educational, and social or psychological impairment. Other individuals who benefit from art therapy include those who have survived trauma resulting from combat, abuse, and natural disaster, along with individuals who have adverse physical health conditions such as cancer, traumatic brain injury, and other health disability, and finally individuals with autism, dementia, depression, and other disorders. Art therapy helps people resolve conflicts, improve interpersonal skills, manage maladaptive behaviors, reduce negative stress, and achieve personal insight. (AATA, 2013) No matter how it is used, all good art therapy leads to both education and growth. It can be beneficial

Cancer is an incurable disease, but as a community, there are many ways we can help the those diagnosed in their journey through school. Cancer knocks on almost everyone’s front door at one point or another. Having a child with this disease can be hard for not just the child

It applies to many different age groups, from children to older people. When children are presented with Art Therapy, it may be geared towards creative style and imagination.

Many psychologists feel that psychological treatment is also a good way to teach patients how to endure their physical treatments. Many of these treatments present physical problems, but the treatments are almost more taxing on the mind. “Research clearly shows that unrelieved pain can slow recovery, create burdens for patients and their families and increase costs to the health care system.” (Rabasca, 1999). In overcoming anything whether it is a task for work, school or anything that can be physically and mentally draining like cancer, it is important to keep a strong mind and a positive outlook no matter how rough it is. Most patients of cancer are so far

When an adolescent suffers through a traumatic event they find themselves on guard, things they once trusted, felt comfortable, safe with they no long feel protected against. As a result, adolescents resort to blaming themselves and can adapt to different coping mechanisms that may be health or unhealthy. Adolescents that experience PTSD and more likely to be affected by anxiety, depression and other emotional issues; that can impact them later in life. The symptoms of PTSD from the traumatic event throws the emotional and psychological development off. An adolescent’s development may be weakened and treatment is crucial for the health of the individual. Individuals with PTSD lose the coping mechanism that is used to ease their own emotions and blame themselves for the events that took place; they believe that the abuse will continue to happen even when removed from the situation. Being able to avoid re-trauma is very important for the treatment of the adolescent but also important is being able to find positive, healthy ways to incorporate the event and memories into discussion. One researched approach that has been scientifically proven to be beneficial, is art therapy.