conversations about medicine and life
Annette Rose
Everyone knows what a scream sounds like. But do you know what it looks like?
This is what a scream looks like.
This is a mask from the Quake Mask Project, a mask-making project for children affected by the 2010-11 Christchurch earthquakes.
[Read more…] about The colours screamed: terror and creativity
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
Beatrice Hale
For the past year or so I have been researching and writing the history of family caregiving. Let me say that in no way can this be a comprehensive piece of work! I have chosen to focus mainly on care of the elderly, since this reflects my professional experience as a social worker.
“It’s just what we do.”[1] This quote opens Tim Cook’s 2007 The History of the Carers’ Movement, which outlines the history of the British organisation now known as Carers UK.[2] But caring for others goes back a long, long time, as Lorna Tilley demonstrates in her fascinating book Theory and Practice in the Bioarcheology of Care. She quotes a number of bioarchaeological authorities who say that most remains of older Neanderthal showed healing, ‘implying that the Neanderthals had achieved a level of societal development where disabled individuals were well cared for by others of the social group’.[3]
Dr Anna Holmes
To be healed is to be made whole. This wholeness is not just about the body, but about the harmony of connections of body, mind, spirit and relationships that are part of each human person. Healing is not the same as cure. Cure is focused on returning the physical body to its proper functioning or removing causes of disease or dysfunction. It is not possible to cure chronic diseases or those who are dying.
Healing happens in the relationship between patient and carer. It is about trust, empathy, enabling hope and bearing witness to suffering. It is possible to be healed without being cured as well as to be cured without being healed.
