‘You don’t need to be an artist to participate in art therapy’ 

Art is a powerful tool for mental health wellness, offering a creative outlet that can reduce stress, enhance emotional expression and promote healing — qualities that are especially important for those living with cancer. Engaging in art, whether through painting, music, writing or other creative forms, allows patients to process their emotions, regain a sense of control and find moments of joy amid the challenges of treatment.  

Art can also serve as a form of therapy, helping patients cope with anxiety, depression and trauma by providing a safe space for self-expression and reflection. Israt Audry, MSW, LICSW, is a clinical oncology social worker in the blood and marrow transplant and immunotherapy clinics at Fred Hutch Cancer Center. They are also Fred Hutch's inaugural art-based therapy provider, bringing a transformative approach to patient care through the healing power of art.  

Hutch News recently sat down with Audry to learn more about their role as a therapist using art-based interventions and their hopes for a pilot program offering art-based therapy for patients at Fred Hutch.

What interested you in pursuing art therapy? 

In my career as a mental health practitioner, I have always aimed to approach my patients with holistic offerings. It’s important for me to go beyond traditional talk therapy by incorporating embodied practices that allow individuals to not only rationally and intellectually understand their experiences but also connect with the mind-body-spiritual relationship and see how it impacts them. I am also inspired by the rich history of storytelling and art as instruments of resistance and healing used by my Bangladeshi and South Asian ancestors. I want to honor how art and creative expression have served as tools for the oppressed across cultures and centuries. 

Using art in my therapeutic approach is one way to bring embodied healing to my clients. What does it feel like to hold the art materials? To listen to a song and move intuitively with it? What bodily sensations, if any, do you notice while visually journaling or viewing a photograph? Are there any spiritual or energetic observations during your process? 

In both individual and group therapy sessions at Fred Hutch, it’s been a pleasure to witness our patients tap into their creativity and gain greater insight into their experiences of living with cancer. 

How do you become an art therapist?  

To become a certified art therapist, you need at least a master’s degree in social work or a related field, along with specialized training in art therapy and many hours of practicum and supervision. This can require a significant time and financial commitment. 

I completed professional training in the expressive arts therapy program at the Northwest Creative & Expressive Arts Institute in Seattle. Expressive arts therapy is a form of therapy that integrates various creative processes — such as music, dance, drama, poetry and visual arts — to foster self-expression, exploration and healing. I completed a professional training certificate in Expressive Arts Therapy   

What are the benefits of art therapy? How can people living with cancer utilize art therapy?  

Research shows that art therapy can significantly improve symptoms of anxiety and depression for all people. For people living with cancer, art therapy can be helpful in: 

• Processing thoughts and emotions related to their cancer experience through a creative outlet. 
• Exploring feelings that are difficult to put into words. 
• Increasing self-awareness and self-discovery. 
• Reducing stress and anxiety. 
• Gaining a sense of control and hope. 

Some people might find it difficult to start or finish an art project. Do you have any tips? 

Art therapy is a therapeutic modality that emphasizes the process of creating art rather than the final product. Although many of the patients I’ve worked with identify as artists, I like to emphasize that you don’t have to be an artist to participate in art therapy. The goal of this approach is to make space for what shows up in the art and in your creative process —what thoughts, feelings, behaviors and experiences do you want to express? How does creative expression help you process challenging experiences and address your emotions? What does your art say, or what does it want to say, about where you are in your healing journey? 

I often ask patients to think about the last time they engaged with art playfully and without judgment, and they usually recall memories from childhood. I think this speaks to how disconnected we become from playfulness, creativity and openness as we age, often becoming more self-critical — especially in a society that devalues art and creativity in favor of productivity and deliverables. But what might be possible if we leaned into cultivating play, curiosity and deeper insights into our experiences and how they’ve shaped us? Patients have shared that art therapy can be grounding, purposeful, and “a colorful way of understanding” themselves.  

Below are pieces from one-on-one sessions with patients:

"Staying grounded"

This was the culminating piece after several sessions with this patient. Throughout our work, he focused on getting through transplant while being grounded in these values. As he added to the drawing each week, we discussed what each value means to him and what significance the colors, symbols and shapes may hold, and how they support him in staying centered through treatment. 

Weekly mood tracker

I asked patients to use colors, lines, words and images to describe their feelings or emotions that they were feeling in the moment. We did this at the beginning of every session and discussed how their feelings have shifted over the course of our time together. 

Can you tell us about the art therapy support group?

We completed the first cycle of an art therapy support group with five patients in December. I’m excited to continue building this resource at Fred Hutch and engaging more patients in this approach. Here are a few pieces completed during the support group:  

“Bloom where you are planted.” 

During this session, we discussed “loose vs. rigid vs. healthy boundaries” and using plants as a metaphor to think about boundaries. This patient drew her interpretation of what healthy boundaries might look like for her, with a reminder, “bloom where you are planted.” 

Hand-tracing activity 

This hand-tracing activity can be a helpful tool to soothe anxiety.  It encourages you to get “out of your head” by focusing on breathing.  The somatic input of tracing the hand can be grounding. Here’s how you can do this at home:  

1. Sit quietly and take a few slow, deep breaths. 
2. Stretch out your fingers on one hand and place it on a sheet of paper. 
3. With your other hand, and a drawing tool, slowly trace the contour of your hand up in one direction and repeat by tracing up in the other direction. You can breathe in as you trace up one side of the thumb and breathe out as you trace down the other side. If breathing does not feel good, just trace mindfully, trying to notice what the sensation of tracing your hand feels like. 
4. You can continue the back-and-forth tracing as many times as you like. 

Uplifting one another 

Over six sessions of the art therapy support group, five participants got to know each other and shared their experiences navigating life with cancer. For the final session, they were asked to create blind portraits of the other attendees. This activity encourages participants to focus on observing the world around them and noticing details; I also asked the participants to try and depict the “aura” of the people in the group in their drawings.  

As we closed out the last session, each participant got to share their drawings along with an appreciation for each of the attendees. It was humbling to see and hear how people saw each other and what qualities or characteristics they thought to uplift for one another after spending six sessions together.