By: Marketta Jeter
Art Therapy offers children with Cancer the opportunity to express their creativity, and desire for hope in the midst of whatever they're going through. This is a movement that's give comfort to children that are having hard times.
Anna Price participates in Art Therapy while in the hospital. During her free time she also likes to do art when she doesn't know how to talk about her feelings.
"I call it "Tossed" because sometimes I don't know what to think about chemo therapy," Anna says about her art.
Her art is apart of the Children of hope art exhibit displayed at the Columbia Museum of Art.
Art therapyallows patients in the Children's Hospital to express themselves in a fun way. The art therapist and the parents hope that they can get into the children's minds to find out what their feelings and emotions are.
"Sometimes it's to painful to express how you feel the arts does a real good job of telling that story when we can't talk about it," says Lyssa Harvey, the Art Therapist for Palmetto Richland.
Bridget Smiths' daughter participates in the Art therapy program while she is in the hospital.
"In her little story you know who would have thought that she would talk about butterflies you know so that just gives me a sense of you know she's free you know she's comfortable so I think it expresses a lot of her feelings," says Smith.
Tricia Streett says that her son sometimes doesn't know how to communicate his feelings and through his drawing she can see what he is trying to say. She also says that the Art Therapy program allows the kids to release their feelings in a fun way.
"It's a release more so than anything for a child as their going through whatever it is that's frustration. It covers such a broad spectrum of issues for the child and helps them understand meaning the adults what the child is trying to say and what their need is," Streett says.
Anna Price sometimes doesn't know what to say but says she has some advice for others.
"Never give up because there always going to be a bright side when one door closes God going to open another one," says Price.
Anna Price expresses her feelings about chemotherapy in pictures.
