["Sens et motions": a supportive media therapy in oncology]

Art therapy is overused in oncology support care, to the point of appearing as an improved form of animation. In the absence of a clearly defined system, there are few guidelines for practice. Here we propose and describe "Sens et motions", an original, reproducible and assessable approach to cancer care.

Seeing in the Dark: A View into Dissociation and Healing

In this paper, I will explore the role of art-making, the experience of trauma and dissociation, and the process of working with self-states from an analytic and creative frame. Relevant literature on dissociation, trauma, and the use of art will be discussed. A case involving my work with an adolescent girl who had experienced sexual abuse from a family member will be shared, with an emphasis on the meaningful role images played during the therapeutic process. Both Jungian and psychoanalytic models of conceptualizing and working with dissociation are included, following Donald Kalsched's (2013) recommendation for a "binocular stance" to treatment, including both a focus on the inner, intrapsychic world and the interpersonal, relational realm, and how art images both illuminated and expressed these realms. Within the therapeutic process, art images allowed the therapist a view into the client's unconscious process, and created a meeting ground for dissociative barriers to be gradually seen, felt and known, by both therapist and client. The experience of dissociation, in images and in session, provided a reference point for myself and my client, Taylor, to develop a shared understanding and a framework for growth.

[Mindfulness meditation and art therapy for Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers]

Alzheimer's disease affects nearly three million people in France, and requires training for both healthcare professionals and caregivers. Our study underlines the value of supporting an adapted program based on mindfulness meditation, to reduce anxiety and stress for patients and their caregivers.

[Art therapy support for patients suffering from burn-out]

The persons suffering from burn-out is in a situation of physical and psychological exhaustion. They are cut off from their ability to mobilize their resources. The art therapist invites the patient to spontaneous and creative introspective work based on bodily and emotional feelings. This process leads the patient to the discovery of his or her sensitive identity. By gradually getting in touch with his inner resources, he asserts himself and regains confidence in his potential.

Art Activities in Long-Term Care: A Scoping Review

Background: Outcomes of using art in therapy overlap with goals of occupational therapy with older adults in long-term care, which include improving and maintaining health and well-being through engagement in occupations. There is a lack of evidence about how art activities could complement or inform occupational therapy. Purpose: The purpose of this scoping review is to map existing literature about how art activities are used in long-term care. Methods: Six electronic databases were searched. Fourteen studies met inclusion criteria and were analyzed to identify patterns and discrepancies. Findings: The analysis suggests art activities can contribute to well-being by improving mood, promoting communication and reminiscence, and supporting the development and deepening of social relationships. Implications: Occupational therapists should consider incorporating art activities as these offer therapeutic benefits and can be adapted to individual strengths and preferred type and level of participation.

Intégrer l’écriture réflexive et l’art-thérapie à sa pratique de soins palliatifs

La spécialité des soins palliatifs se concentre bien souvent sur la prise en charge des besoins complexes des patients souffrant d’une maladie incurable et des préoccupations émotionnelles et psychosociales de leur famille. Les professionnels de la santé qui travaillent avec des patients atteints d’une maladie à un stade avancé sont parfois anxieux et frustrés lorsqu’ils rentrent chez eux après s’être occupés de patients mourants. Quelquefois, lorsque les infirmières souffrent, elles ne peuvent plus assurer les soins psychosociaux qui contribuent à la satisfaction des patients et de leur famille (Pendry, 2007; Freeman, 2013). L’exposition permanente à des situations aussi difficiles et l’accumulation de sentiments et de comportements qui ne sont pas pris en compte peuvent conduire à des difficultés physiques et psychologiques (Pereira et al., 2011). C’est pourquoi les infirmières se doivent de préserver au mieux leur santé. Pour inciter les infirmières à promouvoir la santé émotionnelle, nous avons intégré l’outil CARES (Comfort, Airway management, Restlessness and delirium, Emotional and spiritual support, Self-care [confort, prise en charge des voies respiratoires, agitation et délire, soutien affectif et spirituel et autosoins]) de Freeman (2013) à l’ensemble des mesures de confort définies par notre organisme pour les patients mourants (pronostic < 72 heures) (Stilos, Wynntchuk et al., 2016).

["Art therapy could have the anthropological aim of opening up to the imagination, as a structuring and anticipatory future of a changing universe"]

Jean-Pierre Klein, honorary hospital psychiatrist and director of the French national institute of expression, creation, art and therapy, describes his discovery of art therapy or how the diversion of the imagination, through contact with the material, enables one to approach and symbolise one's problems without always being able to understand what the symbols evoke. Accompanied symbolisation in art therapy can indeed be sufficient. The evolution, from creation to creation, forms a transformation process without there necessarily being any interpretative deciphering. Interview with a pioneer of art therapy in France.

[From nurse to art therapist, a creative caregiving career]

A psychiatric nurse who used to lead art sessions decided to change profession. Now an art therapist, in the same healthcare facility, she runs workshops, providing real spaces of freedom and creation for the patient. Her professional experience and evolution show that art therapy is a valuable part of the chain of care, in collaboration with the multidisciplinary teams.

[Melting-Pain Therapy for difficult mental health patients]

The nurses in the unit for difficult patients at Cadillac hospital have developed an innovative art therapy concept: Melting-Pain Therapy. In this workshop patients produce a collective piece of art created through participants' individual sessions with a nurse. These patients are exclusively men, suffering mainly from schizophrenia, who have been or who are potentially dangerous. The photographs accompanying this article show some examples of these art brut creations.

[Art therapy, Alzheimer's disease and identity? Mrs Lila and the return to herself]

Alzheimer's disease and related syndromes require non-medicated support in which art therapy can play a vital role. The practice of therapy in people with these diseases must be based on targeted, flexible and capable of being assessed. Presentation of a clinical case.

[Art therapy in enhanced accommodation units]

When cognitive disorders in the elderly are significant, for caregivers there remains the possibility of empathy, relational calm, time needed to help them access their memory, and escape the terrible sensation of not knowing. Entering a closed space dedicated to these seniors means creating contact with people who are lost in the twists and turns of a story they no longer recognise as their own. Feedback from an art-therapy workshop with cognitively fragile seniors, cut off from all references.

[Understanding the suffering of the elderly]

Alzheimer's disease is an organic disease of the brain affecting mainly elderly people. Drawing on patients' imaginations on a daily basis or art therapy allow them, despite the cognitive impairments, to construct symbolic objects, analogues, to help give back meaning to their life. If the use of symbolisation when evoking the real object is not possible, the meaning is therefore constructed using the figurative dimension, an analogue substituting the lost and absent object, too painful to evoke again.

[Art therapy, a care approach with several dimensions]

Art therapy is starting to find its place in psychiatric units. However, depending on the facility, it is seen either as an occupational activity, or as a real therapy. While, in both cases, art therapy provides a form of care, it is essential that it is carried out in specific conditions to be truly effective as part of a therapeutic project.

[When art therapy makes us question our certainties]

Supporting elderly people in a nursing home using art therapy undermines the certainties of those who practise it. It is a question of overcoming the differences in standards in institutions and society, by not seeking to care for the elderly patient, but to support the whole potential of their being. In this article, an art therapist shares her experience.