Healing Arts: Painting with a Purpose
HEALING ARTS INITIATIVE SUMMER INTERN USES
ART, MUSIC TO SOOTHE YOUNGEST PATIENTS
COVINGTON - Natalie Phillips understands art’s power to heal. The Loyola University music-therapy student recalls the comforting pleasure of making a yarn-and-bead doll during an extended hospitalization as a young girl.
“Art moves your mind to a better place and eases the stress of treatment and illness,” said the 21-year-old Mandeville resident. “It’s powerful.”
Phillips spent the summer of 2014 working to bring that soothing power to patients and families at St. Tammany Parish Hospital’s Community Wellness Center as a volunteer intern for its Healing Arts initiative.
The St. Tammany Hospital Foundation’s decade-old program promotes the link between art and healing through projects such as artwork and special lighting in patient rooms, water elements and creative use of space such as the meditation garden at the Women’s Pavilion of St. Tammany Parish Hospital.
Pulling from her understanding of art therapy, Phillips painted a rainforest mural on a wall in the Community Wellness Center and Parenting Center conference room that depicts animals exercising and eating fruit. The image underscores the center’s focus on healthy living during parenting classes and other gatherings.
Phillips’ internship resulted in the first Healing Arts project at the STPH Community Wellness Center. In addition to the mural, she frequently played guitar and sang with children and other patients in the center’s waiting room. She also constructed a butterfly mobile to hang from the ceiling above the infant scale.
Mary Lee, chairman of the Healing Arts Initiative Committee and a Foundation board member, also asked Phillips to create original art for the hospital’s Pediatrics Unit, which resulted in dog-themed scenes in the treatment room.
“She is helping to create a lasting, early imprint about the importance of seeking healthcare when you need it and taking good care of yourself,” Lee said. “We’re crafting new, diverse opportunities for healing and restoration among our patrons, big and small.”
Phillips’ efforts also produced positive, immediate results among Community Wellness Center patients ranging from fretful newborns to sometimes-fearful older children, said Sandy Matthews, department head of the Community Wellness Center.
“Patients were absolutely more relaxed as they listened to her music, and some even sang and clapped along with her,” Matthews said.
Babies often stop crying at the sight of the hanging mobile above the scale since its installation, she said.
“And having that baby happy helps both the parents and the nurses,” she said.
Want to contribute to the Healing Arts Initiative? Contact Charley Strickland, Foundation executive director, at (985) 898-4141 or cstrickland@stph.org.