Sitting in that lovely feeling of 'good things to come' with next week's Palliative and Bereavement Care Art Psychotherapy Approaches Workshop being just around the corner... just around the corner, how exciting!
Following on from the evening talk given at the Kathleen Syme's Carlton Public Library, I've been looking forward to bringing professional Art Therapists and (master of arts art therapy) students alike, into further into connection with one another to share, learn and deepen aspects of Palliative Care art therapy within each individual's practice.
The 'arts in health' interest I have is to make sure all of us have access to options for our own authentic expression during our living when managing a palliative diagnosis or facing death, or in our coping throughout bereavement. This has long been my passion, nurtured in the core of my being. To me, access to targeted art psychotherapy support during such times in life, harnesses the creative, expressive, 'meaning-making' components within what Dame Cicely Saunders meant as she said ...
“You matter because you are you, and you matter to the end of your life. We will do all we can not only to help you die peacefully, but also to live until you die.” – Dame Cicely Saunders, nurse, physician and writer, and founder of hospice movement (1918 – 2005).
It's a lovely moment, this one of being 'just around the corner'. And it is lovely mainly because of the potential available in the pending creativity and connections between those who attend in these two special days, particularly when I think about what participants will then go out themselves to do for others in need, what they may further develop and where this may lead... how rich.
To those of you whom this may suit and who can come, see you there!
YM