Creativity as Medicine with Expressive Art Therapist Nandi Szabo
11/25/22 • 46 min
In this episode, Nandi Szabo shares what she’s learned through decades of expressive art therapy. Nandi cultivates safe environments where people come together and discover what is seeking expression during the cancer journey.
Nandi’s workshops approach the cancer experience from many different angles, starting with an invitation to meet yourself where you are. All of them incorporate some element of movement - moving tension through the body. In her words, “we will think about it, feel about it, and then move about it.”
Our conversation is full of beautiful resources including the concept of a “medicine bag.” The medicine bag is like a healing toolkit; when you find a certain practice or image to be supportive, Nandi will say “put that in your medicine bag!” as an invitation to remember this resource and return to it in difficult times.
One of my favorite threads in our chat was about lightening up. Nandi lead a whole season of workshops on the theme of light. One of the questions she asked was, “What is the medicine of lightening up? This lead to a conversation about angels and flight and a beautiful answer emerged from the group: “Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.”
Nandi’s Reading ListArt and Healing: Using Expressive Art to Heal your Body, Mind & Spirit by Barbara Ganim
Art Heals: How Creativity Cures the Soul by Shaun McNiff
“Quotes About The Benefits of Art & Art-Making”
“Art Therapy for People with Cancer”
“Creative Arts Therapy and Expressive Arts Therapy”
“The Effectiveness of Expressive Arts Therapies: A Review of the Literature”
In this episode, Nandi Szabo shares what she’s learned through decades of expressive art therapy. Nandi cultivates safe environments where people come together and discover what is seeking expression during the cancer journey.
Nandi’s workshops approach the cancer experience from many different angles, starting with an invitation to meet yourself where you are. All of them incorporate some element of movement - moving tension through the body. In her words, “we will think about it, feel about it, and then move about it.”
Our conversation is full of beautiful resources including the concept of a “medicine bag.” The medicine bag is like a healing toolkit; when you find a certain practice or image to be supportive, Nandi will say “put that in your medicine bag!” as an invitation to remember this resource and return to it in difficult times.
One of my favorite threads in our chat was about lightening up. Nandi lead a whole season of workshops on the theme of light. One of the questions she asked was, “What is the medicine of lightening up? This lead to a conversation about angels and flight and a beautiful answer emerged from the group: “Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.”
Nandi’s Reading ListArt and Healing: Using Expressive Art to Heal your Body, Mind & Spirit by Barbara Ganim
Art Heals: How Creativity Cures the Soul by Shaun McNiff
“Quotes About The Benefits of Art & Art-Making”
“Art Therapy for People with Cancer”
“Creative Arts Therapy and Expressive Arts Therapy”
“The Effectiveness of Expressive Arts Therapies: A Review of the Literature”
Previous Episode
Anger, Depression, and Ritual with Dorothy Paredes of the Atrium Foundation
Our guest this week is Dorothy Paredes, author of the beautifully candid memoir, 26 & Fucked.
Dorothy is also the founder of The Atrium Foundation, an organization that supports people affected by cancer so they can thrive by covering expenses that aren’t covered by insurance, including things that are outside of the realm of medical expenses.
Dorothy and her team believe that mental health and wellness is as important as physical recovery. They have supported people with everything from rent, to alternative treatments, to school supplies for their children.
Dorothy’s long term vision with the Atrium Foundation is to build partnerships between therapists and oncologists so that people have built-in access to emotional support at every step of the cancer journey.
This conversation was extremely healing for me as the host, and I hope it will be the same for you as a listener.
Next Episode
Healing Journeys: Surviving and Thriving through the Years with Jan Adrian
This is the final episode of 2022! We’ll return in the New Year on January 13th.
Our guest is Jan Adrian. Many of you know Jan through our Community Workshops on Zoom, or maybe you had the joy of attending a Healing Journeys conference. Jan was our very first podcast guest. And now, more than two years later, we’re continuing the conversation - touching in on how her own cancer journey has evolved and diving deeper into the story of how Healing Journeys came to be, as well as what it might look like to continue Jan’s transformative work.
As we close out the year, it would mean so much to us if you would take a few minutes to leave a review in your podcast app. If you are wondering how you can support this work, you can make an end-of-year donation, for which we would be very grateful. Visit cancertalks.com/donate for more information. CancerTalks is a platform for anyone who has been touched by cancer. Write to us at [email protected] if you have a story to share. See you in the New Year!
Jan's Reading List:
1. The Cancer Whisperer: Finding Courage, Direction, and the Unlikely Gifts of Cancer by Sophie Sabbage
2. Stones at the Crossing: Aiming True on My Journey from Scared to Sacred by Amy D. Webb
3. The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief by Francis Weller
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