canadian creative arts in health, training and education enews/journal

CCAHTE Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education eNews/journal Issue 3 2006 1 http://www.cmclean.com email: [email protected] Subscribe free issues 4X yr.

The Poetry of Practice

“Our medical schools have done a great job in training clinician’s “heads” in preparing doctors in the “trade” of medicine but as Sir William Osler tells us, “The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade; not a business, a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head.” Dr. Maureen Rappaport Montreal, Quebec. See pg. 3 From “The Poetry of Practice”

CCAHTE Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education eNews/journal

September 2006 issue: The Poetry of Practice Creative Writing in Medical Training pg. 3 McGill University, Montreal, Quebec ►Focus on Western Canada in Education news... Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine Program pg. 6 University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta Artists-on-the-Wards pg. 8 University of Alberta Hospital Edmonton, Alberta “Carry Me Home” pg. 10 Illness and Identity A Choreographed Portrayal of the Patient Moving From Fear to Security University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Manitoba More news: CCAHTE© Programs and Resources Subscriber Resource Program Resources and marketing opportunities in creative arts, health training and education for subscribers http://www.cmclean.com/resources.html CCAHTE network broadens in Canada and the U.S. CCAHTE© Programs and Resources sponsors “Integrating Creative Arts In Healthcare” Day training intensive October 28, Windermere Manor, London, Ontario, Canada. To read more… http://www.cmclean.com/integrating.html Announcements, links. pg. 13 CCAHTE advertising news… pg. 14 Website: http://www.cmclean.com Email [email protected] Email to subscribe free 4 X a yr.

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sharing● information● news● creative arts►health●training●education

It was not death for if the sun still rises in Jacob’s sky there is for us all the promise

CCAHTE September 2006 Cover photo “Reclamation”© , C. McLean, Ontario, Canada.


“The Poetry of Practice” CCAHTE Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education, Enews/journal

CCAHTE September 2006 issue ___________________________________________________________________

Dear CCAHTE subscribers: I feel privileged to have an opportunity to bring you your third issue of the CCAHTE eNews/journal “The Poetry of Practice.” Journeying across the country from Montreal, Quebec to Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Edmonton, Alberta, in this issue, we explore new ap-proaches in arts and medicine. Our contributors help offer important insights which demonstrate how the creative arts and arts approaches are shaping the new revolution changing the face of the modern educational landscape and opening up creative new inroads into medical education in North America. In this issue we feature progressive programs making a difference in medical education. You will hear the voices of the poets… our teachers, poet-in residence, medical students articulating what it is to be fully pre-sent in the light of death, the poetics of pain expressed through metaphor, the honest voice of the artist as poet and storyteller contending with loss and “closing with love.” In an article about dance therapy , health and palliative care, we come full circle to witness creative and performing arts and new choreography in action in writ-ings about approaches and research in “Authentic Movement” and themes of story, place, identity and reclamation. I want to sincerely thank our contributors to this September 06 edition of CCAHTE; Maureen Rappaport, McGill University Montreal Pamela Brett-MacLean, Verna Yiu, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Shirley Serviss, (Poet-in Residence), Susan Pointe, University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Brenda Cantelo, University of Manitoba, Manitoba poet, Laurie Block And student poet Lily Chu.

Our CCAHTE eNews/journal continues to make publishing inroads as an important educational re-source in health, training and education with an expanding “by request” subscriber base growing daily to include most major universities across Canada, and hospitals across the country as well as university and medical libraries. In the U.S. we are available and accessible as an online resource with subscribers and representation from institutions including top medical and health organizations. Among our thousands of readers we have been pleased to recently welcome subscribers from Uni-versity of California, Berkeley, Center for Medicine, The Humanities and Law, Stanford University, School of Medicine and The University of Arizona, College of Medicine. I’m pleased to announce the new CCAHTE Subscriber Resource Marketing Program details at► http://www.cmclean.com/resources.html

which will be launched in December 2006 and will open new opportunities for subscribers to access the CCAHTE network and market and purchase learn-ing materials related to health, training and educa-tion. If you have not already registered as a CCAHTE subscriber please register as a subscriber and member for issues at [email protected] to receive the CCAHTE Enews/journal free 4X a year as well as sharing in our many member benefits. Also in the news for subscribers, “Integrating the Creative Arts in Healthcare” a one day training intensive, sponsored by CCAHTE, is taking place in London, Ontario, October 28, 2006 more at ► http://www.cmclean.com/integrating.html

Thank you for your support! It has been good to connect with you all as well as your friends and colleagues over these last several months. Please send me your feedback on this issue and “Letters to the Editor” for possible publication. I hope you enjoy your fall issue! The journey continues... Cheryl McLean Publisher, Editor CCAHTE. ►CCAHTE submission guidelines here►http://www.cmclean.com/guidelines.html


By: Maureen Rappaport MD FCCFP McGill University, Montreal, Quebec

The Poetry of Practice Feature article

Creative Arts in Medical Education and Training

I offer a creative writing course as an elective to fourth year medical students at McGill University, Mont-real, entitled “The Poetry of Practice.” We meet for two and a half hours twice a week for four weeks, to read, write and discuss “medical literature” radically different from what is found in medical textbooks, clinical case notes and scientific journals. The literature I am referring to are stories of sickness and healing, patient patho-graphies and doctor stories as well as great artistic literary works written by ordinary people, healthcare profession-als, medical students, poets and writers. I use various sources including anthologies and websites (2,3). The course grew out of my own personal experience with crea-tive writing backed up by a flourishing growth of inter-est in the Medical Humanities in Medical Schools across North America. Our medical schools have done a great job in training clini-cians ‘heads’ in preparing doctors in the ‘trade’ of medicine but as Sir William Osler tells us, “The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade; not a business, a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head.”(4) We have been criticized for a failure of heart, for lacking in the art of practice. Reading and writing short stories and poetry in a supportive group set-ting is one way for some students to discover what is in their hearts and to remember why they went into medicine. Medical educators often debate ‘if we can and how we can’ teach the attitudes, values and skills necessary to aid in our patients’ healing process. Much has been written about the hidden curriculum in medical school and how the journey in medical education can diminish the level of our students’ empathy or create wounded healers.

Feature Article

Many Nights I watched her in her fractured sleep I listened to her breath hanging moistly in the catacombs of her lungs her ribs the strings of an ivory harp played by cruel gods she would ask for water sometimes and skim it with her tongue her lips and hair chalky in the moonlight then she would lean back gingerly though her mass was already insubstantial to the sheets and the coiled metal beneath she had the most incredible skin a parchment sheath growing more translucent by the hour, as if underneath thin layers of white wax fell away with the grinding of her bones I knew that one day soon, in the moon light I would be able to see through her Lily Chu (Med4)

“It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there” (l) William Carlos Williams


My main objective in this course was to listen to and honour the voices of medical students through creative writing. To quote Rita Charon, an internist, literary theorist, and leader in the field of Narrative Medicine, “It is not enough for residents and staff to examine what we do in medi-cine, but we must be cognizant of what medicine, the training process and practice has done to us.” (5)

In my course “The Poetry of Practice” a safe space was created to allow students to discover their own training stories; to use the power of non-scientific, literary and poetic language to articulate insights and feelings related to any aspect of medical training. In my sessions with the students, we wrote freely for about thirty minutes. The rules were simple. We primed ourselves by first reading and discussing a poem or two and then we wrote. I told them to write about specific in-cidents, to remember details, sounds, smells, colours and faces, to write freely, without editing, to write nonsense if that’s what came out, and to know all writing could be torn up or shared. We did various creative writing exer-cises to stimulate the right side of our brains, to allow non-linear narrative thinking to over-ride logical scientific process. Pens flew in our little classroom and by the second week all participants were reading out loud to each other. The ground rules were to treat all writing respectfully and confidentially, but to treat it as fiction. Language is very powerful and for many of the writers in my groups the permission to expand their medical selves out of the constraints of a brief case note humanized both the patient and the doctor. The speaker in the piece here► states she is not touched, but I as the reader, am very touched by these few lines and can feel the suffering and loss of both student and patient. In the poem, “Many Nights” (on the previous page) the same student writes about another experience in a way which is not just ‘a metronome to loss and suffering.’ Watching a patient die, the moment of bearing witness, takes its form as poetic elegy. The first stanza contains some medical words, fractured, breath, lungs; words that mix hauntingly yet beautifilly with catacombs, ivory harp and cruel gods. As the poem progresses the patient, her ‘insubstantial mass’,

“Strange, how the first time I had taken a patient’s history I could have written a novel. And now, just a few months later, here I was like every doctor before me, weeding out everything that made this person human until I had her life, or all that I needed to know of it, tapered into a single piece of recycled hospital paper. Almost eighty years. And that was it. She was “77F, advanced CRC”. J. Howe (Med 4)

“I take notes. Reams of fiber

with names, ages, aches,

fevers, and cures to be filed

away in some cabinet or an-

other. My wrist moves in

time with the litany of dis-

comforts and deficiencies, a

metronome to suffering and

loss. Sound etches the paper

with ink, indelible, unforgiv-

ing. Your words and my

paper, but it doesn’t touch

me.” Lily Chu (Med4)

Cont’d Poetry of Practice


becomes more ethereal, more translucent by the hour, melting wax, until the student knows she would see through her. One cannot watch death and suffering and not be touched, but these feelings are hard to express, hard to articulate and many times impossible to acknowledge as students run around the hospital not quite sure of what they’re supposed to do as student doctors.

For those who can access it, poetry offers a language to express the inexpressible. For those who wrote, shared and listened in this context, these moments of bearing witness became medical acts. The issues my students wrote about were more or less universal, the same issues American researchers in Narrative Medicine have reported, fear of death and suffering, loss of personal identity, fear of ignorance, role models (good and bad), and the joy of doctor patient relationship. (6,7) The students in the two years I’ve held this course told me verbally and in written evaluations that they found the course healing, a stress relieving activity, meaningful, a way to maintain a sense of humanity, a way to resolve conflict and disturbing feelings and a wonderful way to bond with classmates and feel less alone about common experiences. This course was healing and cathartic for my students and me; both the poetic and the group processes were necessary. Looking at the words written by the physician poet William Carlos Williams, I’d like to say, it’s hard to get the diagnosis from poems, yet many suffer daily for lack of what is found there. ______________________________________________________ 1. Williams WC. The Doctor Stories. 1938. New Directions Publishing Co. 2. Reynolds R. and Stone J (Eds). On Doctoring. 1995. Simon and Schuster. 3. Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database. ► http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/ 4. Osler Sir W. Classics and Ideals and selected Aphorisms of Osler. The Classics of Medicine Library, Birmingham, Alabama. 5. Charon Rita. Narrative Medicine: A Model for Empathy, Reflection, Profession, and Trust. JAMA 2001;286;1897-1902 6. Rucker L. and Shapiro J. Becoming a Physician: Student’s Creative Projects in a Third-year IM Clerkship. Acad Med 2003;78(4);391-397 7. Ferrara E and Hatem D. Becoming a Doctor: Fostering Humane Caregivers through Creative Writing. Patient Education and Counseling 2001;45;13-22

Maureen Rappaport MD FCCFP is a family doctor who splits her time between working in a busy community practice in Montreal, Quebec, and teaching family medicine residents and medical students. She is also a writer of short stories and poetry mostly about caring for older persons and dying patients. Her work has been published in medical journals and anthologies.


►CCAHTE Focus on Western Canada The Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine Program University of Alberta Balances Scientific Knowledge with Compassionate Care

Exploring the Art of Medicine Pamela Brett-MacLean, PhD. (C) Verna Yiu, MD, FRCPC

Creative Arts and Humanities in Medical Education/Programming

“ART and the approach to life through art using it as a vehicle for education and even for doing science is so vital that it is part of a great new revolution that is taking place.”

Jonas Salk

L aunched this past spring, our new Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine Program is one of only a few dedicated medical humanities programs in Canada, with Dalhousie’s

(Nova Scotia) Medical Humanities Program perhaps the best known of those that exist. The Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine Program at the University of Alberta is directed to engendering a balance of scientific knowledge and compassionate care among students, resi-dents and faculty. It is aimed at fostering the development of well-rounded, health practitioners who are skilled, reflexive and caring practitioners. It is also aimed at ex-tending and enriching learning opportunities of students and faculty across the university, as well as those in the Edmonton community regarding intersections between the arts, humanities, health and medicine. These have in-cluded such initiatives as the Art in Medicine Club ► History of Medicine Club, International Health and His-tory of Medicine student groups, Music Makes Good Medi-cine, “Hear’s to Your Health” Concert Series and the Syncope Jazz Band, among others. In 2004, the Faculty was the first Canadian medical school to be installed in the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Funding from the Gold Foundation is directed to recognizing those medical students most frequently nominated by their fellow students as being someone they would most want to care for a loved one. In addition to

University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta

The Art in Medicine program was initiated at the University of Alberta in order to complement the trend toward patient-centered care. By fusing medicine with artistic expression, the project pro-vides medical students with the opportu-nity to step away from the clinical aspects of disease, and to focus on its human fac-ets. The results of the program are pieces of art, which have been created with the intention of conveying a greater under-standing and empathy for individuals living with schizophrenia.

www.med.ualberta.ca/education/ahhm.cfm

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honouring students recognized by their peers for excellence in clinical care and com-

passion, the Faculty was also interested in fostering understanding and appreciation of human-ism and the arts and humanities as applied to medicine. The Faculty considered the develop-ment of a program focused on the arts and humanities program to balance scholarly science with the art of medicine. A cursory review revealed a fragmented range of activities and initiatives across the medical school and the university. The Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine program was ini-tiated to provide an umbrella structure to: 1) recognize ongoing educational opportunities; 2) develop resources to support ongoing and emergent initiatives; 3) promote linkages and collaboration between related programs and activities across the faculty/ university/ community; 4) enhance visibility of strengths in this area at the University of Al-berta; and 5) undertake a focused program of research and inquiry. The program had a great start with its very successful launch in May 2006. Invited speakers Drs. Rita Charon (Columbia University) and Arthur Frank (University of Calgary) gave keynote addresses on the topic “Narrative’s Impact on Clinical Practice.” The event was both well-attended and received. Dr.Indira Samarasekera, President of the University of Alberta, who promised a renaissance in the arts and humanities at the university in her inaugural address in 2005, congratulated the Faculty of Medicine. She stated, “With foresight and amazing collaboration you have launched the University of Alberta toward precisely the kind of future outlined in our vision for creating a great university.” Over the past number of months we have been working to ensure a solid foundation for the program. We have been meeting with interested individuals across the university, working to build relationships with key stakeholders and partners.

Recognition of the value of art as an important component of healthcare is increasing. Research also exists that supports the use of arts and humanities in medical education, in developing observational skills, enhancing understanding of the human condition, and influencing attitudes in support of patient-centered care. Adapted in part, from President Samarasekera’s remarks at our launch, we are indeed looking forward to a creative exchange and dialogue between the arts, humanities, and science that will foster an ex-panded vision that integrates the body, mind, health and wellness, and goes beyond simply the treat-ment of disease. visit our website at www.med.ualberta.ca/education/ahhm.cfm for updates, or contact Pamela Brett-MacLean (Co-Director) at [email protected] or Dr. Verna Yiu (Co-Director) at [email protected]. Gold Humanism Honor Society http://www.humanism-in-medicine.org/

“We are introducing several new electives, a speaker series, and are planning to co-host an art exhibit on illness experience. We are plan-ning faculty development sessions that will support inclusion of narra-tive as an integrated aspect of the curriculum, and are co-sponsoring writing and health courses that are being offered through the Faculty of Extension. We will also be creating opportunities for students and faculty to share their experiences and insights into how the arts and humanities apply to medicine and healing.” Pamela Brett-MacLean Co-director

The Art of Medicine

CCAHTE is now accessible as a link on the website of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta www.med.ualberta.ca/education/ahhm.cfm


Feedback from patients and their families as well as physicians and staff clearly indicates the involvement of the artists can reduce the perception of pain and alleviate boredom, loneliness and anxiety, thereby reducing the use of pain medication, sedatives and anti-depressant medication and length of stay.

The “Artists-on-the Wards” Program Arts Programming Integral in Healthcare At University of Alberta Hospital The Artists-on-the-Wards program at The University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, was devel-oped to extend arts programming beyond the walls of the McMullen Gallery “The Friends of the University of Alberta Hospitals” has operated on the main floor of the hospital since l986. The program began as a pilot in October 1999 with three visual artists hired part-time on four-month contract to work in selected units. “The Friends” have continued to support and expand the program assisted by grants from The Millennium Part-nership Program and Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Physicians and staff reported the presence of the artists noticeably brightened the mood of patients, increased motivation and determination to get well and provided a sense of control, purpose and accomplishment. Today the program employs three visual artists one poet/writer and one musician who service 34 adult nurs-ing units and waiting rooms throughout the hospital. These units include the Fire Fighters Burn Centre, the Emergency Ward, Medical Outpatients and Intensive Care as well as, Cardiology, Dialysis, Gastroenterology, Hematology, Neurology, Plastics, Psychiatry, Pulmonary, Transplants, Trauma, Urology, and a number of surgical units. Artists have become accepted members of the health care team over the seven years the Friends of the Uni-versity of Alberta Hospitals has offered patients, visitors and staff opportunities to enjoy or participate in the creative arts at the bedside. Musicians perform their own music, take requests or compose songs with the patients. Visual artists paint on windows, draw portraits and involve patients in painting and drawing, book-making, creating dream catchers or mandalas, doing sculpture or origami, making mobiles or collages or par-ticipating in installation projects. Writers read to patients and write poems in response to conversations. Other projects include memoirs, a poetry contest, whiteboard poetry, magnetic poetry, journaling, Thoughts for the Day and Poetic Medicine,(dispensed in prescription bottles). A writing desk in the patient library holds an open journal where patients, visitors and staff are encouraged to record their experiences. Seven years of experience at this hospital has shown that employing professional artists is critical to the suc-cess and credibility of the program. Artists on the wards need to have superior facilitation skills, demon-strated empathy and sensitivity toward others, formal training or equivalent experience in an artistic disci-pline and a current professional practice in order to train and supervise volunteers. Professional artists are imbedded in the arts community and their connections and contacts are important in initiating new projects, seeking out funding partners and establishing relationships with health-care professionals within the hospital. The fact that physicians, nurses, psychiatrists, social workers, chaplains, physiotherapists and occupational therapists stop the artists in the halls to refer patients to the program testifies to the growing acceptance of arts programming as an integral part of healthcare at The University of Alberta Hospital. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Susan Pointe in an Art Advisor for the Friends of University Hospitals and has worked in the Arts and Heritage sectors for15 years. She developed the Artists-on-the-Wards program, which she manages along with the McMullen Gallery and the University of Alberta Hospitals art collection. Read more on Shirley Serviss pg. 9

Creative Arts in Health-Programming CCAHTE Focus on Western Canada

Shirley A. Serviss, BA MTS and Susan Pointe, BSc MMSt


►For more information about the Friends in Healthcare Programs contact Susan Pointe, Art Advisor at 780-407-8121 or [email protected]

The poetics of pain by Shirley A. Serviss

Pain doesn’t translate into a number between one and ten, can’t be assessed by Scranton like a Math exam. One person’s five Is another’s nine. Pain speaks in metaphor. Doesn’t feel like a three. Feels like a hammer blow or the prick of a thorn. Pain uses repetition to make its point. Cycles like a refrain, is chronic as a chant. Pain pulses, pounds, beats or throbs its own particular rhythm. To treat a person’s pain, the Physician must dissect it like an English major explicates a poem, Try to figure out What it really means. Reprinted with permission from “Hitchhiking in the Hospital” (Inkling Press 2005) Shirley A. Serviss MTS, BA, has been a poet in the Artist-on the-Wards program at The University of Alberta Hospital for over six years. Her most recent poetry collection, “Hitchhiking in the Hospital” (Inkling Press, 2005) is based on that experience. More information: http://www.inklingpress.ca/index.html

Shirley Serviss … Poet-in-residence “Sometimes a Word is Enough” “I had read my poetry in a variety of public places ... bars, bookstores, churches, coffee shops and libraries so reading poetry in wait-ing rooms or in dialysis units didn’t present any difficulties. My writing, on the other hand, was a private act, often done in the solitude of a retreat centre after months of mental incubation. As part of my new job I was suddenly expected to produce poems at the bedside of previously unknown patients. This forced me to let go of my need for per-fectionism and ownership of poems. They were no longer mine, but collaborative efforts involving the patients.” “Not every patient is going to write poetry. Sometimes a word is enough. I taped the outline of a tree on a wall in Medical Outpatients and provided coloured cut out birds and leaves I’d purchased at an educa-tional supply store. I invited patients to write something they wanted to invite into their lives on a bird and to stick it to the tree branches; and to write something they wanted to release on a leaf and stick it on the wall “falling” to the ground. Each day there were more birds inviting a variety of things into people’s lives and leaves letting go of anger, illness, frustration, fear and doubt.” “We are only beginning to discover all the possibilities for art in this setting. We are just starting to put poetry on meal trays and to produce anthologies of the poems patients have written. In every ward I enter or corri-dor I walk down, I look for blank white-boards or windows where poems could be written….the possibilities for artists-on-the-wards are limited only by our imaginations. The potential for healing is immeasurable.” Selected excerpts from “Exchange Magazine”, Spring 2001, The United Church of Canada.

Artists-on- the-Wards (cont’d)


“Carry Me Home” a choreographed film portrayal of the patient moving from fear to security Brenda Cantelo Ph.D., Department of Religion, University of Manitoba

with poetry by Laurie Block

Creative Arts, Dance, Illness and Identity

(The following brief discussion begins with a description of a dance video which developed out of a pilot project for Manitoba Artists in Healthcare and offers a theoretical framework for understanding how the work may influence identity formation positively. It is in-formed by the psychological theories of identity creation through being “seen” and “witnessed” found in the field of dance therapy, and draws from cultural theorist Stuart Hall’s insights into the connections between cultural identity and diasporas.) “Carry Me Home” is a dance video/DVD based on choreographer Brenda Cantelo’s volunteer experiences at St. Boni-face Hospital, Winnipeg, Manitoba. The dances were heavily influenced by her experiences in Palliative Care and re-flect both the realities of illness and the themes of healing and consolation. This project was part of a pilot project, funded by the Manitoba Arts Council and coordinated by Manitoba Artists in Healthcare. Cantelo, along with printmaker Karen Cornelius, composer Gerry Atwell and poet *Laurie Block, was invited to create new pieces based on the hospital experience. The dances, set to Atwell’s original score and incorporating Block’s poetry with stage designs by Cornelius, were originally performed live at the hospital for an audience of patients, staff and community members in October, 2003. The video “Carry Me Home,” a reworking of the original choreography, was di-rected and produced by Brenda Cantelo and screened at the 2005 Society for the Arts in Healthcare: No Borders: part-ners in HEALTHcare, Edmonton, Alberta, and at the Innovations in Art in Healthcare Symposium in Nelson, British Columbia in 2006. This work interprets key issues in palliative care such as fear, loneliness, struggle, love, caring and family. The piece opens with an isolated individual engaged in a struggle against illness and moves to a situation of finding spiritual and physical reconciliation through contact with others. Dance Therapy and Individual Identity The movements in this video are developed from a technique in Dance Therapy known as Authentic Movement. Most often associated with the works of Janet Adler, Marion Chace and Mary Whitehouse, Authentic Movement suggests that gestures, which come from genuine emotional engagement, have the ability to communicate deeply. (1) Movement, in Whitehouse's view, acts as a valuable tool of self-reflection and at its deepest, can assist in the development of self-hood and identity, what she calls, one's "authentic self.” In the psychological theories of dance therapy, trauma, such as illness, can result in a fragmented and fractured sense of self and alienation. The process of reclamation is found through telling one's story and by "being seen" or “being wit-nessed.” In this technical sense, these terms refer not only to being visible, but also to being acknowledged and vali-dated. (2) According to Janet Adler, only after been "witnessed" or in other words, having one's own experience vali-dated, is one able to see oneself authentically and to find one's voice. The key to identity and wholeness begins by being seen by another.(3) Hawkins explains the therapeutic process and transforming power of "being witnessed”: ►More about poet Laurie Block pg. 12 and www.laurieblock.ca

CCAHTE Focus on Western Canada

“…when one discovers that the inner voice is free to make its own unique statement, then something magical happens. Suddenly, there is a new sense of trust, a confidence in self and a willingness to take greater risks as one reaches towards new goals.”(4)


These are the marks of a fully integrated person who has overcome fragmentation and alienation, the marks of exile from the self. A person in touch with their authentic self moves from a secure center, safe in the knowledge of who they are and free to express themselves creatively and positively. The witness facilitates this process by allowing the individual to be "seen" and his/her story to heard. This dynamic is re-enacted through the video as the perform-ers tell the patient's story and the audience silently and compassionately witnesses the struggle. Illness can be a blow to one's identity and sense of self, but it can also connect one to others who suffer similarly. In the language of cultural theorist Stuart Hall, people such as cancer survivors, for example, who share similar experi-ences or backgrounds form a loose diaspora, whose histories are muted and whose experiences are of marginal concern to the rest of society. In Hall's words, one's identity in a diaspora is layered and fluid, 5. "part of a shared culture, a sort of collective ‘one true self’ hiding inside the many other, more superficial or artificially imposed 'selves’ which people with a shared history … hold in common." (5) “Carry Me Home,” takes the viewer back in time and place and allows the audience to participate in a re-telling and a re-visioning of the past. This process, what Hall refers to as an “imaginative rediscovery,” is the key to the production of identity. When one recognizes one's situation, story and place, even in the re-constructed world of the imagination, one's sense of self, both in the social and personal sense is re-claimed. “Carry Me Home," is but one small example of the potential of movement in the context of illness. By portraying the patient as transitioning from fear to security, the video allows the audience to move vicariously with the patient through illness to a deeper sense of self and connection to others.

___________________________________________________________________________________ 1. Levy, Fran. Dance Movement Therapy: A Healing Art. Reston, Virginia: The American Alliance for Health, Physical Education and Dance, 1998:61-74. 2. Shira Musicant. "Authentic Movement and Dance Therapy." American Journal of Dance Therapy 16.2 (Fall/Winter 1994): 102 3. Janet Adler. "Who is the Witness?" Contact Quarterly (Winter, 1987). 4. A.M. Hawkins. "Marion Chace Annual Lecture: The intuitive process as a force of change." American Journal of Dance Therapy, 13.2 : 105-116. 5. Stuart Hall, "Cultural Identity and Diaspora." In J. Rutherford. ed. Identity, Community, Culture, Difference (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1990) : 393.

“When one recognizes one's situation, story and place, even in the re-constructed world of the imagination, one's sense of self, both in the social and personal sense, is reclaimed.” B. Cantelo

LOVE

Carry Me Home cont’d

Brenda Cantelo Ph.D. completed her PhD in Religion at The University of Manitoba in 1998. She specializes in the area of religion and the arts and has written on religion and architecture, painting and dance. In 2001 she developed Canada’s first acade-demic course on Religion and Dance, which examines linkages between belief systems and bodily movement in world religions. Cantelo currently teaches in the Religion Department at the University of Manitoba. ► More information: ► [email protected]


Featured in “Carry Me Home”

Coming to my Senses

the third Johanna poem

Laurie Block

I was the only one who could stop myself, loving. I was rolling along and growing old as I’ve told you so many times before I was shrinking inside my skin, so transparent with want that I pulled shut the window, I was a glass wall. That was me, my lips mashed grotesque against the triple pane, that was my breath obliterating the view. I was stretched. I was poisoned. And then I forgave myself. No. That’s not entirely true I was given permission to step through the fear and ceaseless chatter and call out in a voice I’d never used before to breathe deep and walk freely whatever place on earth I choose to set my foot. Permission to know my skin the way the apple does coming into fullness at the end of the season. Now I can tell you about the sweetness under the sun declare the ripe round truth that I’m beginning to speak with tenderness I’m learning to close with love.

“Coming to My Senses” from Time Out of Mind” by Laurie Block, Oolichan Books, Lantzville, B.C., 2006 visit: www.laurieblock.ca [email protected]

Laurie Block is a poet, playwright, pro-fessional storyteller and seasoned performer. He was born in Winnipeg and now lives in Brandon, Manitoba.

“In the foreword to his moving, honest and luminous collection of poems, “Time Out of Mind,” Laurie Block inscribes the last coher-ent words his mother said to him: I used to be quite fond of you. Shortly after that, she lost what remained of her senses and sank into the vegetative state in which she spent her last years …Many of these poems are rooted in disorientation, displacement and loss of equilibrium, the friction between what happens outside the skin and what may be taking place on the inside. The poet be-lieves that we value consciousness as some-how more concrete, enduring and linked to assumptions about identity than our bodies. He therefore asks the question: Is the self first a face or a soul?”

Excerpts from www.laurieblock.ca

CCAHTE is now available and accessible to students and faculty as a learning resource at the University of Manitoba library.

►http://www.cmclean.com

free subscription [email protected]

LOVE

Carry Me Home (cont’d)


Lit-Med Database http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/ Art and Healing Network Information and resources in arts and healing http://www.artheals.org/about.html

H Net Online International scholars organization in Humanities and Social Sciences http://www.h-net.org/ Devarts Arts/social change

http://www.tagstudio.net/devarts/

CCAHTE© Integrating Creative Arts in Healthcare Day Intensive, London, Ont. Saturday, October 28, 2006 http://www.cmclean.com/integrating.html

Light and Shadow©

Custom Stained Glass

Info: [email protected] Home, office, staff room or therapy room

“Peace circle” mandalas CCAHTECCAHTECCAHTECanadian Creative Arts Canadian Creative Arts Canadian Creative Arts

in Health, Training and Education eNews/journalin Health, Training and Education eNews/journalin Health, Training and Education eNews/journal

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The publisher would like to sincerely thank:

CSSE The Canadian Society for the Study of Education Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences University of Alberta www.med.ualberta.ca/education/ahhm.cfm

Ontario Health Promotion E Bulletin Canadian Art Therapy Association

And all our many CCAHTE subscribers for their daily enthusiasm and support.

The Ontario Art Therapy Association

“self expression, self discovery, personal development”

The Ontario Art Therapy Association, founded in 1978, is a government chartered organization. Its mission is to serve its members and the public by establishing standards of Art Therapy education, professional competence and ethical practice. Art Therapy is a health service profession that provides therapeutic intervention for people experiencing emotional difficulties. The emphasis in art therapy is on the journey of self expression, self discovery and personal development. Art Therapy can be used to explore many issues such as relationships, family, loss, life transitions, abuse and behavioural issues. Art Therapy can be part of an individual or group process. Art Therapy can be useful for people of all ages. Artistic skills or creative background are not needed to participate. For more information or to find an art therapist in your area ►visit our website at: www.oata.ca.

Link up and explore

“If I have my story I’m alive. If I share my voice with others I’m a human being.”

CCAHTE © http://www.cmclean.com/resources.html Subscriber Resource Marketing Program


A Note…………. of Thanks to CCAHTE Subscribers and Potential Advertisers Over the last several months we have been very pleased to receive many ads and inserts along with requests to have these published in CCAHTE. This, I believe, is a vote of confidence and a sign of our growing success as our many subscribers seek out the most effective communication vehicles for their ads and announcements related to arts, health, research, education and training. Frequently in academic publishing this is standard practice. Ads and announcements are commonly published in paid subscriber or paid membership publications and accessing the organizational network is considered an important benefit of such membership. Some publi-cations are also sustained by contributor fees or other such payment arrangements. As a progressive eNews/journal CCAHTE is currently free to subscribers and openly accessible to many high profile national and inter-national organizations’ memberships and libraries in Canada, the U.S and the U.K.. CCAHTE is not currently supported by major grant funding in Canada and we do not charge contributor fees or membership dues as we firmly believe it is critical for this publishing operation to maintain its fair, open and equitable subscriber status. In order to support and maintain our growing national and international network and to sustain expanding publishing operations CCAHTE charges a fee for ads and promotional inserts such as but not limited to:

Calls for Papers PR notices

Employment, jobs, ads for consulting Conferences, announcements

Workshops, retreats

To those who have sent promotional information we are grateful for your support. These requests are impor-tant indications that there is a place for CCAHTE in your networking and communications plans. It is with your help that we will have an opportunity to continue to bring this free eNews/journal to thousands of readers across disciplines in Canada, the U.S. and U.K. working together to raise awareness about the creative arts and connections in health, training and education. I hope you will consider supporting us and promoting your important activities throughout the CCAHTE network as a valued advertiser. Please contact D. Charles Kelly, CCAHTE Advertising at: [email protected] or contact the Publisher directly at [email protected] if you would like to know more or if you have any questions regarding advertising and promotion in the CCAHTE journal, via email, or on our website. If you would like to support CCAHTE as a potential sponsor or donor we would be very pleased to hear from you. Donors and sponsors will receive special acknowledgement in the CCAHTE journal. Thank you, C. McLean, Publisher, CCAHTE, Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education eNews/journal. http://www.cmclean.com email: [email protected]

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As a free internet publication CCAHTE is available to subscribers and distributed widely via the internet across Canada in the U.S. and U.K. Contributors content and articles are protected under copyright law and articles may not be used or quoted with-out clearly indicating sources or gaining permission from authors. Permission must be granted by the publisher for use of this journal/contents including potential library use (email [email protected]) This is a free internet publication distributed widely for educational use. This publication may not be altered in any way or used for profit. The publisher of CCAHTE assumes no responsibility for liability for claims, statements, opinions or views written or reported including potential link referrals to products, books, resource materials etc. that may be advertised or sold.

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