Health Q&A: How art therapy helps hospitalized children

• Program therapists also work with parents of sick newborns to create scrapbooks
• A teenage athlete discovered his inner artist while a patient at the hospital
• Artworks give hospital 'sense of childhood everywhere.'

At Maria Fareri Children's Hospital at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, doctors and nurses tend to some of the region's most seriously ill and injured children.

But there's another important group of caregivers there, too, a group of specialists who belong to the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department. These professionals provide art and music opportunities for young patients and their families, as a way to deal with stress and worry related to hospitalization.

Among those specialists is Gabrielle Grimaldi Bellettieri, who launched the art therapy program in 2006. Every day, Bellettieri — a licensed art therapist and certified group psychotherapist — leads activities focused on painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking and more. It's all part of an effort to get young patients feeling better physically and emotionally — while enjoying creative fun along the way.

There's a family-centric philosophy at work here as well, which means that parents, siblings and visiting friends are also welcomed at the hospital's art studio, a factor that helps with the healing process. Bellettieri even co-leads a scrapbooking group for parents with babies in the neonatal intensive care unit; this allows moms and dads to preserve memories, and to establish supportive relationships with other parents in the same position.

We caught up with Bellettieri to ask about her role in caring for the hospital's young patients.

How does art play a role in general at the hospital?

We have a beautiful art studio, which is unique for a children's hospital. It has everything from canvas painting and photography to printmaking and crafts. Then we also have a contemporary art collection housed within the hospital. We have work by some famous artists: for example, Robert Rauschenberg and Willem de Kooning. It's pretty cool when we have a child sitting in the hallway sketching and getting inspired by one of the pieces. And a famous aquatic muralist, Wyland, comes every year. We set up canvas with easels and he does an instructional art class for all the kids in the hospital, which is great.

How does art help these children recover?

It's an extremely effective coping tool. That's predominantly what we use it for. It helps the patient with specific issues they're having, like pain. It also helps with emotional issues in a non-threatening way, so they can express themselves in a way that's not invasive or scary for a child. We really try to make the environment as normalizing as possible. A lot of these kids are having huge changes in their lives … so the sole purpose of the art and music therapy is to give the kids an outlet for self-expression.

Do you work one-on-one with kids, or do they go to group classes?

We have an open studio three times a week where the kids can just come in and create. In addition to that, we have a mobile art cart that goes from room to room for the kids who can't come out of their room. I work one-on-one by referral with some of the long-term kids, and some of the kids who might be going through some emotional issues. Then their doctor, or another staffer from the Child Life program might recommend me.

Describe how a child has recently benefited from the art therapy program.

One comes to mind who was recently released. His name is Ryan. He's a 14-year-old boy who was here fighting non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He was an excellent basketball player and super into sports. If you look at it in a negative way, he was obviously here battling cancer. But during his stay, he found art. He'd never taken an art class before in his life, but he was an amazing, innately talented artist. He picked up painting and drawing and graffiti art, not only working with me but working in his room at night when he couldn't sleep. We ended up entering him in a contest for White Cloud tissues — and he won! (His artwork will be on White Cloud tissue boxes sold at select Walmart stores later this year; part of the prize is also a $15,000 donation to the hospital.)

He really found tools to keep himself engaged while in the hospital, so he wasn't bored or depressed. He was able to find a hidden talent, and something other than sports, which he's not able to do right now. He came in as an outpatient last week, and he had this huge backpack. He pulled out an airbrush machine and said, "Hey, Gab, my mom and I were in the area and decided to stop and say hi to you. Can you teach me how to use this?" Art just brings out different elements in the kids that is wonderful to watch.

But it must sometimes be difficult interacting with children who are so ill.

I can't say it's always easy, but it's beautiful to be a reason why they're happy here at the hospital. I've been involved in some cases where the patient is passing, and I've become so close to the patient and their family that they want me in the room at the end stages of life. They want handprints and legacy projects…it's very hard to do, but at the moment, you're not worried about that. You're just doing what the patient wants, and helping their family remember them and make memories in a positive way. I'm very grateful to be a part of that.

What has been the program's overall impact?

Incorporating artwork throughout the pediatric floor and the ICU, it really gives you this sense of childhood everywhere. We try to emphasize the positive in every situation here at the children's hospital. It definitely comes across as a first impression visually — it's just a warm feeling you get. There's so much light in the hospital. And the kids are having fun here, even though they're sick.

This interview has been edited and condensed.