Art therapy is a combination of various forms of creative expression: movement, drawing, painting, sculpture, singing, improvization aimed at personal development and curing of the disease. This method directs the child's soul toward recovery and self-support; this is why its use at a pediatric hospital is so important.
When a child receives much medical attention from the doctors and other hospital staff, from his or her parents, this child becomes too concentrated on the disease, especially in adolescence. The child sees this situation as his or her own defect, becomes unsure and shy, suspicious and depressed, has problems with communication. Some of such children refuse to cooperate with art therapists or possibly agree to cooperate but show inpredictable changes of mood. An art therapist must be ready that the child may refuse to cooperate at any moment. But also must be ready to seek this cooperation again and again.

We, Irina Kolosova and Olga Gorneva, are co-therapists working at the Center for Kidney Transplantation since the autumn of 2004. We chose this department because art therapy is most adequate and useful for children who have to spend a long time at a hospital, months or even years, and for whom even a fatal outcome is possible.

Art therapy is a comparatively new method in our country. We believe that each person is capable of creating something, and our aim is to awaken this inspiration. We approach these children with love and joy, and they approach us.

What is the difference between art therapy and an artist's (or designer's) work? The main difference is that our main accent is on personal relations between all of us, the participants of the creative act. Of course, the final product is also important, but the aim is achieved only if our work together brings smiles and positive energy, leads to warm personal contacts and a feeling of happiness.

The pictures that we draw together on Saturdays will hang on the walls of the dining-room through the whole week in order to keep the memory of this happiness, these smiles.

We use not only traditional materials, like paper and crayons, but also phototherapy (a method widespread in the West): we photograph the children's inspired and rapt faces as they draw. A child is so immersed in the creative process that he or she doesn't even notice the photographers and then sees these photographs with joy and surprise. These photographs will also hang on the walls, and the child can discuss them with the parents or friends.

Our work is based on the presumption that any creation is a gift from God. We don't invent anything ourselves, but we just try to reveal what God opened to us.

A child's way of thinking is more graphic and specific than the thoughts of most grown-ups. This is why is a child can use drawing as the way of perceiving life around him or her. A child's drawing can show the level of his or her spiritual health.

Art therapy has no contraindications. One of its main purposes is to eliminate fears and neuroses. Expressing his or her fears in a drawing, a child becomes less afraid. We sometimes ask children to draw their fears. Some children draw with their left hand, some use dark colors, some tear their drawings afterwards, thus symbolizing reduction of their fear.

In further work, we offer various projects to children but formulate only the titles. That is, these projects are interactive and may be completely reformulated by the children as time goes by. The child is free to choose the desired color, the nature of lines (smooth or sharp), the composition of the drawing. It will be the child's own work.

At the beginning of creative work, we forget about knowledge in the ordinary sense of the word, because such knowledge separates the subject and object of perception. The material used for creation helps us express our feelings about life. The color, sound, and smell help us in this. The resources of the right hemisphere and cooperation of both hemispheres are opened.

Each child can draw in his or her own way, revealing the individuality and seeing what he or she can do better than others. This idea is best implemented in the method of spontaneous drawing. Even a simple line, as R. Assagioli noted, can evoke a certain psychological response.

If we present the children's works and photographs of the process in the form of a diary, we can monitor their changes within a certain time. The lines become more diverse, and it takes longer to complete a drawing. In the process, the children are concentrated and relaxed at the same time. They use the entire area of the paper, selecting saturated and mostly positively interpreted colors. The faces in the photographs show trust and inspiration, joy and tranquillity.

The children change indeed, as well as their pictures. The level of their activity and responsibility also changes from "OK, we've come, what are we to do now?" (or even from zero level, when a child is completely passive and doesn't want to do anything) to independent decisions and choices.

When we attain a high level of responsibility, it is important to offer a positive direction for a child's activity. Many kids, especially boys of 10-12 or so, are especially active in drawing demons, batmans, vampires, etc. This is natural and not bad in itself, because such are the known computer characters. But this natural aggressiveness should not lead to destructive acts. One of the ways to cope with it is to draw comic strips. The children invent their roles, unite into teams, and play these roles. We photograph each episode, sign the photographs together with the boys, and make a comic book. Of course, the boys mostly attempt to use their wide knowledge in the field of horror stories and thrillers. But, instead of space wars with laser weapons, we tried to invent more positive plots. Here is an example: in one of the stories, gangsters were to rob a shop together with its poor shop-assistants. But, in the final version of the story, the bad guys received nothing, because the smart ship-assistants managed to give them the fake money drawn using the Photoshop software.

We can see how a child's mood changes during even one meeting. The children often come in a bad mood, in depression, only through habit. But, in five minutes, such a child can already take an active part in the drawing and happily propose new ideas.

One example. The girl's name was Ira. When I entered the department, she was very weak and miserable, lying in bed. I said, "Ira, we'll be glad to see you." She replied, "Oh well, maybe I'll just visit you and sit there for a minute or two." She came in when other children were already working. And, in a few minutes, she joined the others and proposed text phrases for the comic strips. Then she wrote them down and said that she wanted to work further. But her mother entered and was worried: after all, she saw Ira lying in bed only a few minutes ago.

Ira asked, "Mom, may I work a bit more?" Her mother said that she was afraid for the child's health, and so they would go back to their ward and think. They left... but Ira returned in five minutes and worked for an hour more. This means that Ira actually felt strong and healthy while she was playing with the others.

It is very important that the parents participate in our work. Their adequate attitude to our classes is necessary, and, if the mothers are also involved in the art therapy, the curative effect becomes much stronger. The parents also feel that their fear and stress are reduced, the anger and fatigue decrease.

Some more examples. When Ilona was admitted to the Center for Kidney Transplantation, she was extremely depressed, and her first drawings clearly show this. But her mood improved after our work. Her grandmother, who was at hospital with the child, acknowledged this. The elderly woman understands that art therapy alone cannot cure a person but can be one of the factors for recovery.

D. was an irritable, aggressive teenager with a poor cultural background and an urge to destroy. At first he ignored or ridiculed our classes. Then he sometimes joined in but soon quarrelled with one or another member of the group, demonstrated aggressive behavior, or just lost interest. But, at a certain stage, he caught the rhythm of our classes. He created very interesting comic strips and was ready for long and productive work.

Dasha, a girl of 15, liked the idea of creating something from the very beginning. However, her first works were rather primitive and resembled those made by a five-year-old: a house, a sun, a tree with simple and rigid contours. But presently we see that Dasha can create diverse and interesting drawings. For example, we see earth drawn in a patchwork style and a growing tree with bright and live leaves. This drawing shows the awakening of imagination and fantasy, and maybe also the archetype of feminity.

In the calm and friendly atmosphere of cooperation, the child finds inner harmony, the harmony of health, which had been in the soul since birth but was lost during the grave disease...