“This is a place where you can really breathe, be present, and be who you truly are”

Art therapy is difficult to explain in words, because it’s so individual. It depends on the person, their environment, their context, and where they are on that particular day. My role is to create a safe space, to build trust, and to allow them to bring their whole self into the room. When people work creatively, the whole person is involved — and you can work at a very deep level.

Many people arrive thinking they’re coming to an art class or feeling intimidated by creativity. But once they understand that it’s their choice how much they engage, and that they’re in control, they relax. That sense of control is especially important when illness can make so much feel out of control. People often surprise themselves.

Art therapy contributes to quality of life by allowing people to slow down, reflect, and connect with themselves. This is a place where you can really breathe, be present, and be who you truly are. We can bring the past in, and we can look towards the future, but in this room it’s about being together in the now.

One of the things that feels very different in palliative care is the preciousness of time. There’s a real awareness that time matters. It’s a privilege to share those moments with someone when time becomes so precious to them. You make the most of it, and deep connections often form very quickly.

How Art Therapy Works in Practice

A typical day depends on where I’m working. In the Inpatient Unit, I’ll go to patients’ rooms and work with them there — sometimes together, sometimes leaving materials with them and returning later to reflect. That emotional and psychological insight can then be fed back to the team, supporting the person’s overall care.

In Day Care, we meet as a team each morning to discuss how each patient is doing. Patients who are interested come to the art therapy room, and we might paint, draw, use 3D materials, or sometimes just talk with the art materials present. It’s always patient-led. I can make suggestions, but I try to let people find their own way, and my role is to ensure they feel heard and seen.

We use a wide range of materials — paint, clay, drawing, pastels — and sometimes books or images for inspiration. I also use a lot of natural materials. The outdoor space here is beautiful and quiet, and nature brings an extra dimension to the work. Pressed leaves, flowers, natural objects — these materials carry lifelong meaning for people and connect them to life cycles and the wider world.

Sometimes people want to work with unexpected materials — embroidery, or creating keepsakes by encasing something meaningful in resin. These pieces can live on and hold great significance.

Patients often tell me they’ve felt courageous here — able to take risks, to step into the unknown. Others are surprised by themselves, rediscovering playfulness or joy they haven’t felt since childhood.

Working as Part of a Multidisciplinary Team

Palliative care is a very inspiring place to work. The approach to care here is so holistic. Patients are seen as whole people: physically, psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually. All of those elements are held together. It allows people to be cared for in the best possible way for them as individuals. I often think the rest of healthcare has a lot to learn from palliative care — it has always been a pioneer in this way of working.

There’s no part of care here that feels unnecessary. Everything works together to help people feel supported, and art therapy fits beautifully into this way of caring.

The team here is a huge part of that. You work alongside people who know the patient in so many different ways and on so many levels, and all of that knowledge comes together.

The multidisciplinary team is central to this work. This collaboration — with nursing, consultants, social work, aromatherapy, and others — is very special. Patients often say it themselves — that they feel so cared for and so well known here.

About Me and My Path to Art Therapy

I’ve been at Mayo Hospice a little over six months, so I’m still new to palliative care and to this area. I qualified in 2013, so I’ve been working in art therapy for over a decade now, across mental health, suicide prevention, rehabilitation, psychiatric care, and community settings, with children, adolescents, and adults. I’ve had quite a broad range of experience.

I came to art therapy through my own experience of art-making. Anyone who works creatively knows what it can do — the self-awareness it brings, the way it allows expression beyond words. I worked through my own bereavements through art, and when I discovered art therapy as a profession, I knew it was the only thing I wanted to do.

I feel deeply appreciative of how valued art therapy is here. The hospice movement has always led the way in holistic care, and it’s a privilege to work in a place where this work is understood and respected.

– Anna Mulvihill, Art Therapist