Susan Rudnik is an art psychotherapist working in Paediatrics at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital – a role funded by CW+ and made possible by a gift from the Khoo Teck Puat UK Foundation as part of its support of Best For You. She supports children and young people who may be finding it difficult to express themselves, using art as a way to explore and process emotions in a safe, creative space. In this video, Susan talks about how art psychotherapy benefits paediatric patients at our hospitals.
Watch the video or read the transcript below.
Susan shares how art psychotherapy helps children and young people during treatment.
Supporting children
My name is Susan Rudnik and I’m the Art Psychotherapist in Paediatrics here at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. My role is funded by CW+.
One thing that I really like about my job and my work as an art psychotherapist is the connection with people and the value in having a relationship and an attachment and how important that is particularly in paediatrics.
Often, a lot of people are medical and are going to come and do things and procedures and make decisions about you and your treatment, so to have someone slightly other can be incredibly helpful in holding some of the other parts of the patient.
These aren’t just the body and the disease or the issue that’s presented in paediatrics and in the hospital, but some part of them that feels quite important as well alongside all the stuff that’s needed medically.
Using art to express thoughts and feelings
Art psychotherapy, with its art-making and its art materials and those tangible, visceral things that you can feel and hold, really enable something quite powerful to happen when children and young people are trying to communicate thoughts and feelings.
They can do it much more readily and much more easily than they can with words.
CW+ has been incredibly supportive of my work and CW+ are the ones that have basically made my post possible and sustained it over the years.
CW+ has funded Art Therapy at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust since 2014 as part of our Arts in Health programme.
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