Between drips of chemotherapy, cancer patients find strength in paint at this clinic

Kapil Bhasin, cancer patient. (Express photo)

He is not alone. The Medanta Clinic in Defence Colony, where he is undergoing treatment, organises day-long painting workshops for cancer patients and their families to keep them engaged creatively and positively to calm their anxieties about their treatments.

Bonding with survivors

Shipra Kapoor, 42, comes in for the workshop a couple of hours before her chemotherapy slot. She is currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer, which was diagnosed a couple of years ago after she felt a lump in her breast. Her husband has been with her every step of the way, including participating in art therapy classes. “Both of us feel relaxed when we paint and don’t talk about the disease,” she says, lamenting the lack of psychological support for cancer patients.

Kapoor writes a journal, where she documents the pain of cancer patients battling it alone without any psychological support. “While doctors try to explain the condition and treatment — sometimes multiple times because we are laypersons and may not be able to understand — they cannot provide emotional support that cancer patients need. I met a patient while getting my scans. She was not as much worried about her stage three cancer as she was about the fact that her husband had to feed her. There is a lot of societal pressure on women to take care of the family even when they are sick. They should take the time to heal and ask for the help they need. There should be patient support groups to help them understand and verbalise this,” says Kapoor. She wishes there are more shared activities for patients so that they can forget about their fears, bond with others who are going through the same trough, find a momentary escape and some joy. Kapoor sits beside her husband, both of them engrossed in painting a snowman, the theme for the holiday season.

Art therapist Juhi Shamshery knows exactly what each chemo patient is going through. It was art that gave her a sense of peace and resilience during her own fight against breast cancer. She had joined painting classes with her friend just a few months before being diagnosed in 2016. “I did not know anything about art therapy then but I remember the calm I felt when I painted alone in a room. My mind would stop raging. Otherwise, I would continuously think what would happen, would the treatment work, how would my life turn out to be. I would remain focussed on the painting and nothing else for hours at a time as if that moment was all I had to make a mark. Art helped me in my journey,” she says.

How art therapy helps patients

Once she recovered, she trained as an art therapist. “Drawings and colours can tell a story. It can help people express their feelings (of fear, anger, helplessness) that are hard to put into words. It gives patients a feeling of agency and accomplishment by focussing on what they can create and control, counteracting the loss of control during treatment. It distracts you from physical pain and can help reduce anxiety, depression and fatigue through relaxation and mindful activity,” says Shamshery.

A 2020 study published in BMC Cancer found that art therapy improved mood and reduced anxiety and pain levels in adult chemotherapy patients. The benefits started immediately after the session and persisted for both pain and depression at least 48–72 hours afterwards, according to the study from the US. Another small study of 30 breast cancer patients from Nagpur found a reduction in distress scores after just one week of mindfulness-based art therapy — where colouring mandalas was combined with deep breathing.

Dr Amit Bhargava, who is treating both the patients, believes that art therapy not only helps cancer patients but their caregivers as well. “Both cancer patients and those who are taking care of them are under a lot of pressure. There is a lot of worry, a lot of uncertainty. Something like this can take their mind off these worries for some time.” Just to blend in and build trust, the doctor, too, takes to the canvas with his patients.

The moodboard

Explaining how colours can have a therapeutic effect, Shamshery says, “An elderly patient chose black colour, indicating the dark phase of life. So, I asked him to paint the blues and yellows first to rewire his thinking. During my treatment, I used to often sketch a crying woman in charcoal. I never finished it. But once I completed my treatment, I made a vibrant painting with orange, pink, and yellow. At the time, I did not understand what my chosen colours meant, now I do.” They mirrored her ability to sort through the chaos in her mind.