conversations about medicine and life
Annette Rose
I heard it said recently that “imagination has taken a rest”, but has it? A mask making project in 2010-11 for children affected by the Christchurch earthquakes suggests otherwise. Here is one of my favourite mask stories from the Quake Mask Collection: a mask that illustrates a young person’s dialogue with death. [Read more…] about Facing down Thanatos: the road to recovery in a landscape of ruin
Annette Rose
It is 22 February 2011 and my hometown of Christchurch has been unearthed by a series of devastating earthquakes. I have an idea for helping Cantabrian youngsters make sense of strange events: a ‘debrief and development’ mask-making project in schools.
Here is a hint at what the quake kids saw with their terror-blinded eyes, not only a tour de force but also a tour de face… [Read more…] about Tour de face: making masks in a landscape of ruin
Rose Stanton
Arts Therapy is a form of psychotherapy which connects with a variety of theoretical frameworks. It is more focused on the creative process and self-understanding than on art as an end product. I practise the multimodal approach. This is the use of two or more expressive therapies to foster awareness, encourage emotional growth, and enhance relationships with others. The expressive arts therapies can be defined as “the use of art, music, dance/movement, drama, poetry/creative writing, play, and sandtray within the context of psychotherapy, counselling, rehabilitation or health care” Malchiodi (2005, p. 2).
[Read more…] about “That’s my stroke”: Expressive Arts Therapy with a survivor of stroke
Huberta Hellendoorn
To communicate does not always mean using spoken words, as the development of sign language shows. But I want to write about our experience with art and non-spoken communication.
In 1962 our daughter, Miriam, was born with Down syndrome. Our feelings of disappointment and sadness were soon replaced by a determination to fill her life (and ours) with challenges that would prepare her for as normal a future as was possible. And she did have that normal life. Although she was born too early to take part in mainstreaming she stood out in all her schooling activities, and, later on, in different employment situations. In 1989 Miriam went to a course at the Mosgiel Abilities Resource Centre to learn independence skills. At the end of the course the teacher asked me, “Did you know Miriam has a talent for painting?”
Dr Louisa Baillie
Just on two years ago I got the phone call I didn’t want, that my dear friend Alison was close to passing away. Would I like to join her family sitting in vigil as she slept? Of course. That was hard to do, though, to walk into her bedroom and see her parents, her husband, her three children, a couple of other friends and a minister seated around her bed, all quietly focused on her. She lay curled up like a child, breathing deeply, seemingly oblivious to my presence. I didn’t know quite what to do. Conversation seemed inane. [Read more…] about Touch. The neglected sense?
Dr John Holmes
Letterpress printing. What images do you get from these two words? I immediately think of type, lead, paper, dirty hands and black ink under the fingernails. You would not expect a doctor to have dirty hands and ink under the fingernails. When I was a medical student I was given a small hand printing press, some type and other necessary equipment. I bought a very helpful book, Printing for Pleasure, which was first published in the Teach Yourself series by the English Universities Press in the late 1950s. I have been learning and practising letterpress printing ever since. [Read more…] about Ink under the doctor’s fingernails
