Art Therapy for Primary Care Providers
Empathy: A feeling of understanding between individuals.
Exercise:
Observe the interaction happening in this image. How does it make you feel? When was the last time you felt these emotions?
Image Description: The lower half of a Caucasian patient in a hospital bed, wearing a cloth gown under bedsheets. Patient has hand extended over torso, and another Caucasian person, whose body is not visible in the photo, has her hands placed around the patient’s hand in an embrace.
Ask yourself:
- How do you feel compassion without losing yourself in it?
- Are you making this connection about you?
Observation: A perception based on evidence.
Exercise:
Take a look at the image and try to make observations based only on what you see. How might the people in this photo be related? What can you infer?
Image Description: A Caucasian woman in a hospital bed holding an infant in her arms. Next to the woman is a Caucasian man, leaning over the bedside to look at the infant in the woman’s arms.
Ask yourself:
- How many of your observations are empty assumptions?
- What evidence do you have to support your observation?
Communication: The act of relaying information.
Exercise:
Spend a full minute describing the image to someone who isn’t looking at it. What do you think is happening in this scenario? How does it make you feel? Then have your partner repeat back what they heard.
Image Description: An African American patient in a hospital bed with his eyes closed. Seated next to the patient’s bed is an African American man, looking downward, resting his forehead on his left hand.
Ask yourself:
- What role are you playing as a communicator?
- How are you communicating non-verbally?
Bias: A view that filters how one perceives the world around them.
Exercise:
Take a look at the people in this image. What roles do you think they have in a clinical setting? If you learned they were both nurse practitioners, would you be surprised? Why?
Image Description: A Caucasian man and woman looking at a clipboard. The man has grey hair, is wearing a white medical coat with a stethoscope, holding the clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other. The woman has dark brown hair, is wearing a white medical coat and is holding a binder under her arm.
Ask yourself:
- How open are you to integrating new information?
- How can you overcome your bias?
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