Exploring the Arts as Culturally Safe Healing Practices

Advancing equity-oriented arts-based spiritual practices in health and social services through a multidisciplinary investigation.

Our Story

“We call upon those who can effect change within the Canadian health care system to recognize the value of Aboriginal healing practices and use them in the treatment of Aboriginal patients in collaboration with Aboriginal healers and Elders...”
The TRC Call to Action #22

Traditional healing practices are central to wellbeing in Indigenous communities, yet health and social services often lack culturally safe holistic programs. The integration of mind, body, spirit and emotions – often expressed through traditional healing practices – could be supported through arts-based initiatives and contribute to decolonizing the healthcare system. This research stream is envisioned at the nexus of arts-based initiatives, Indigenous healing practices, and spiritual support in health and social services. Our team comprised of spiritual health practitioners, health and social science scientists, Indigenous mentors, community members and organizations, patients, expressive art therapists, and artists aim to advance equity-oriented arts-based spiritual practices as a culturally relevant healing application for people with structural disadvantages.

This stream builds on a systematic review and early study exploring how patients processed their cancer experiences through an expressive arts group at CancerCare Manitoba. Upon receiving a cancer diagnosis, life irrevocably changes, and complex experiences of emotional distress often occur. Our research explored how patients with cancer experience, utilize, and draw meaning from an expressive arts group. The 32 participants —who were post-treatment and in a period of transition—found that by practicing mindfulness and expressing themselves through art, they were, in fact, embarking on a transformative process of restoration. Mindfulness practices enabled participants to let go of their ruminations and calm their minds so they could fully engage in expressive arts activities and then express hidden emotions and difficult experiences in new ways. The group facilitated several unique meaning-making processes, and many patients described spiritual experiences they had in the group.

“A far cry from the idealised image most people have of a quiet studio environment, a sanctuary set apart from the rest of life. Instead, it is a studio smacked down, dead centre, in the middle of life...Against all the odds, and perhaps because the odds are against us, we make art."

– C.H. Moon, from Studio Art Therapy: Cultivating the Artist Identity in the Art Therapist

Projects

Building on these mindful-art projects and team members’ research on the negotiation of religious, spiritual, and cultural plurality in healthcare settings, our collaborative team of spiritual care practitioners, health and social science scientists, Indigenous mentors, community members and organizations, patients, expressive art therapists, and artists, is exploring the realm of art and spirituality in health and social services. Given the wide range of spiritual beliefs, calls to decolonize healthcare, and amplified spiritual distress, health and social services need new approaches to provide spiritual support. Art can provide alternative, meaningful ways to connect our internal worlds with something greater than ourselves, and has long been associated with the sacred, especially in Indigenous communities.

Our team’s scoping review (n=14 research articles) examined how and why arts have been used for spiritual care in healthcare. Our analysis revealed healing mechanisms, whereby art offered a poignant spiritual language and acted as a transformative presence in healthcare encounters. Outcomes included transcendent encounters, internal healing, spiritual well-being, and connections to others. But there was limited research on patients’ perspectives and equity-oriented initiatives.

To address these gaps, we are exploring equity-oriented arts-based spiritual practices in healthcare settings and in the community. We would like to know how arts-based spiritual support works for structurally disadvantaged people to improve their health and well-being. The meaningful incorporation of Indigenous mentors’ guidance offers an avenue to decolonization and reconciliation, and our Indigenous advisory council will ensure our findings are relevant for culturally safe. Our goal is to explore how art and spirituality can advance equity and forge new, inclusive avenues for human flourishing and the social good.