Art therapy draws parents at children’s hospital seeking stress relief

AKRON, Ohio—Painting and drawing isn’t just kid’s play at Akron Children’s Hospital.

The pediatric hospital has been encouraging parents to participate in a variety of free art therapy programs that also are offered to patients.

For two hours every Tuesday afternoon, Akron Children’s Hospital art therapist Molly Kohut opens the doors to the Emily Cooper Welty Expressive Therapy Center for patients, parents and siblings alike to draw, paint, doodle and create during Art Therapy Open Studio.

Kohut also offers other programs and goes directly to patient rooms for individual sessions with families who can’t attend groups.

“It is important for them to take a moment out and have some self-care,” Kohut said. “At this hospital, we’re really focused not only on patient-centered care, but family-centered care.”

Shannon Findley has been a regular at the weekly drop-in art sessions since her daughter, A’Kira Hunter, was transferred to Children’s in critical condition in August after being born three months premature.

The first-time mother and nurse’s aide from Columbus was visiting family in the Youngstown area when she had an emergency Caesarean section after her liver and kidneys began shutting down.

Findley has been staying nearby at the Ronald McDonald House in Akron in the rare moments she steps away from A’Kira’s bedside while the baby girl continues to struggle with numerous health problems.

“I don’t want to miss anything,” she said. “They can’t promise me she’ll live.”

But every Tuesday, she slips away for a couple of hours to create art that will decorate her daughter’s bedroom when A’Kira finally gets to go home.

Some of the items, including paintings of Hello Kitty and SpongeBob and a tiny easel with the words “Princess A’Kira” are displayed throughout A’Kira’s space in the neonatal intensive-care unit.

During one session, Findley drew a picture of St. Michael—a “fighting Angel,” just like her daughter. On a recent afternoon, she painted a beach scene on a ceramic tile.

Findley said the art sessions help her escape and deal with the stress and anxiety she has experienced throughout her daughter’s ordeal.

“It gives me some time to not just sit there in the room,” she said. “I just like art, period.”

The Expressive Therapy Center opened several years ago in a former rooftop play area that was enclosed with a glass ceiling. The bright, colorful center includes areas for art, music and dance.

Studies have suggested that worried, stressed-out caregivers can benefit from the distraction and expression offered by picking up a paint brush or participating in other forms of art, particularly in group settings.

One study published last year in the professional journal Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology found that parents of children with chronic pain who participated in a group art therapy program felt a greater level of support.

Parents with critically ill children often feel so much is out of their control, Kohut said. Creating artwork “is an opportunity for expression and control.”

Brittany Grant of Mantua, Ohio, often attended the weekly drop-in sessions in the therapy center while her 5-month-old daughter, Kandice Ramsey, spent several months in the pediatric intensive care unit after undergoing two open-heart surgeries to correct a congenital birth defect.

“We’ve been through so much, not knowing if she would survive,” Grant said this week before her daughter’s discharge. “It was so nice having a program like this where you could go and have stress taken away.”

People don’t need to be experienced artists to benefit from art therapy, Kohut said.

“We’re here for everybody,” she said.