Thank you to all of the members of the Congressional Club for visiting Tracy’s Kids Art Therapy Program at Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. We had a very enjoyable time with children and their parents creating our own gold medal awards. We were honored to have Noah Grove, a gold medal Paralympic hockey star with us. Noah is a former Tracy’s Kids patient. The kids and parents loved getting the opportunity to meet Noah and to hold his gold medal.
After visiting with the kids, we participated in a panel discussion with parents, patients, and Tracy, the art therapist who started Tracy’s Kids with Matt Gerson twenty years ago.
The stories were amazing. We were reminded once again of the power of art therapy. We heard stories of a “worry box” to hold the young boy’s worries; an “escape plan” devised by two patients, helping them focus on life after cancer treatment where they would escape in the hospital helicopter (complete with a full head of hair); a very young patient being able to express herself in pictures when she couldn’t verbalize what was troubling her; and many stories of children wanting to come back to the hospital to participate in art therapy.
Thank you, Tracy, and all of the Tracy’s Kids art therapists for what you do. Tracy’ Kids is in seven facilities in five states. We are grateful to the congressional spouses for wanting to learn more about the power of art therapy.
