The Power of Phototherapy
Delasega: I did a project with a medical student where we had a man, a patient here who is waiting for a heart transplant and we did phototherapy. We gave him a camera and asked him to take pictures of a various images that meant something to him during this long, long weight that he had.
Mary Lynn Schiavl: Delasega got points out that in the case of photography, it’s not just about taking pictures, it’s about reviewing and reflecting upon the work afterward to determine why the individual made the choice to photograph a particular person or object and what significance it has to them.
Delasega: What does it mean to you? So, not everyone has that ability to go through and follow up. And it’s really important if you’re doing this for therapeutic reason. To sit down and look at what’s been written, what’s been portrayed? What’s been acted out and help the person learn from that or explore that rather than just think, “Well, that’s a great picture, I’m going to put it on display.”
Mary Lynn Schiavl: For Delasega, expression through the arts gives people who are struggling with illness an opportunity to experience life on a different level and help them to realize that they are more than their illness.
Delasega: We have an exhibit here few years back from the orthopedic association and it was all artwork created by people with various orthopedic conditions and many of those artists there was a book that talked about the artist and art they created and many of those artist really found meaning in their lives by becoming a sculpture or becoming a painter and expressing something about their condition in the art that they had in this exhibit.
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