Project Overview

Kidney Wales recently received funding from One Stop Community Grants to partner with The Teat Pot Trust to deliver an 8 week art therapy course for children living with chronic kidney disease in Wales.

The group recruited for this project consists of 8 young people aged between 11 and 13 years of age.

Each week, the virtual art therapy session begins with a check in and an art warm up activity. The sessions have covered topics such as:

– Getting to know each other better /feeling safe in the group
– Exploring our safe place
– Feeling different
– Masks The face we want others to see and the face that we hide.

The sessions allow for each group member to explore the theme both creatively and verbally. The sessions ends with a wind down art activity which gives the group the opportunity to ask any questions and allows the young people to feel ready to end the session feeling more relaxed.

The group have been very focused and produced some very detailed art work.

Examples of some of the art produced in the sessions.

As the weeks have progressed the group have become more interactive and supportive to each other sharing their experiences of their health condition and issues around this, including hospital visits, medications, injections, cannulas and at times feeling different from siblings and peers.

Impact

We are so pleased to hear that this project is having such a positive impact on the children who are participating’s wellbeing. Some of the feedback received includes.

“What I think of art therapy is that it’s really relaxing after a busy school day . I really enjoy listening to other people’s experiences of the kidney journey and has helped me realise that art is an expression of you. It does not need to be the same as everyone has different art like everybody is different. It has let me know that there are people like me. I always thought that I was the only one with kidney problems but now I know I am not the only one”

“she finds the sessions calm and relaxing and looks forward to them”

“ … have loved these drawing sessions. He’s really got stuck in and done it and interacted with everyone. I have loved sitting in the background and listening to him. It’s lovely to hear him talking about how he feels.”

Future Projects

Following the completion of this 8 week course, another course will begin funded by Tesco Community grants with a different cohort of children participating from a different age group. We are excited to see the outcome of this, following the success of our pilot project.

If your child is participating, and you’d like to share your feedback about your experience please email [email protected] with your comments.