Abstract

Not until Medical Art Therapy was implemented in the 1990s was art work created by hospitalised paediatric patients with diagnoses other than cancer reported. Cathy Malchiodi refined art making for therapeutic application with patients undergoing long-term hospitalization and found indication of medical sequelae in their art works. Many art therapists have documented the drawings of cancer patients. Research has shown how art therapy with medically ill children has been effective in reducing depression and anxiety symptoms, which enables a sense of control (Councill, 1993). This paper examines the artwork of orthopaedic paediatric patients. Malchiodi's Medical Art Therapy (1998) which uses art as the creator's voice, and a Studio Arts based programme that allows the patient to make their own decisions, self-direct, adapt and create self-reflective actions were described in light of the current project. The integration of Developmental Transformations is a technique used in the creative arts therapies to help therapist interpret meaningful kinesthetic responses in the patient's natural developmental sequence (Johnson, 1999). Five orthopaedic paediatric patients were chosen to demonstrate their unique processing using Creative Arts Therapies. The connection between mind and body was illustrated, providing a scaffold through which the injured body could be encouraged to move in new ways.