Art for Cancer Wellness: Patients Group with Lacy, Fall 2022
Artwork by March 2022 participant Corinna Woodard.
Workshop Title: Art for Cancer Wellness
Facilitator: Lacy Mucklow, MA, ATR-BC, LPAT-S, LCPAT, ATCS
Schedule: Tuesdays, 5 PM to 6:30 PM ET
- October 11, 2022
- October 25, 2022
- November 15, 2022
- November 29, 2022
- December 13, 2022 (Art Hive)
Workshop Overview: In this five-session workshop series, facilitated by art therapist Lacy Mucklow, participants will be invited to take part in an art therapy wellness group for patients with cancer. Each session, participants will be guided to consider a theme designed to explore feelings, increase self-expression, foster hope and strengths, identify coping skills, and engage in mindfulness and grounding.
Week-by-Week Overview: Each workshop will be structured as follows: Check-in, sharing of theme, art making, and discussion.
Week 1: Gratitude Project
Media: Sketchbook, journal, altered book (from previous workshops, if applicable), various art materials (collage, colored pencils, markers, pens, etc.)
Begin with group name introductions, brief review of consent, and space to discuss the group’s expectations. Introduce the concept of gratitude and discuss the benefits of focusing on being grateful. Participants can use whatever foundation they would like to use and identify what they are grateful for in the moment and can represent them through words and images with their selected materials. Share at the end of the group what emerged for the participants and note how focusing on gratitude might be helpful for them. Discuss about gratitude journaling and resources for cultivating gratefulness regardless of circumstances as a regular practice.
Week 2: Mindfulness: Change of Seasons Meditation
Media: Sketchbook or altered book, colored/watercolor pencils, oil pastels, other media of choice
Open group with a check-in and begin with a Change of Seasons meditation. Participants then consider the constant of change in life—both outside of their control as well as change they create themselves—and create artwork relating to what change they would choose to make in their life. Following art-making, participants will then write a written reflection about their artwork, process, and/or experience. End group with discussion about mindfulness practices and how they may be helpful for grounding, healing, and reducing stress and how to effect positive change.
Week 3: Mandalas
Media: Square sketchbook, circular template (lid, plate, cup, etc.), oil pastels, colored/watercolor pencils
Open group with a check-in and lead into the mandala meditation. After the meditation, group members create an original mandala with their materials and share about their artwork at the end of the group during discussion. Discuss experiences making their mandala and share positive effects creating mandalas can have (as shown in research) to see if they found similar benefits. End group with discussion about mandala journaling as a coping tool.
Week 4: Touch Stones
Media: Touch stone, old magazines or catalogs, clear glue, scissors
Following an opening check-in, the group is invited to pull out magazines, catalogs, and other print items and choose images and words from their old magazines to create a collage on the backside of a large clear flat marble. The suggested theme is to choose a word or phrase that summarizes their time in this cycle of art for wellness group, placing the word on first, and then finding a background of a color or pattern to glue on behind the word using the clear glue. Once dry, the background can be trimmed off with scissors, and it is optional to brush glue on the back to seal the collage. The touch stone can be placed where it can be seen often as a reminder or used like a worry stone and kept available in a pocket or bag and rubbed for grounding. The group shares their word selections and touch stones and summarizes their experience in the group as a closing.
Week 5: Art Hive
Media: Any supplies available—participants’ choice
This final group of the cycle will be an “Art Hive,” a kind of open studio concept for people to make art in a community setting with others. There is no theme or direction—this is just time for the participants to close this workshop cycle together with their fellow workshop-mates and share in a way that will bring closure to this cycle and end of the year.
Fall 2022 registration is closed. Registration for the next cycle in spring 2023 will open in early 2023.