This study was conducted to explore the experience of master's students majoring in art therapy who experienced on-site art trerapy for children with childhood cancer, the meaning of their experiences, and the nature of experienced phenomena. Based on...
This study was conducted to explore the experience of master's students majoring in art therapy who experienced on-site art trerapy for children with childhood cancer, the meaning of their experiences, and the nature of experienced phenomena. Based on the common experience of master's students who have experienced on-site art therapy for children with cancer, we will adopt phenomenological analysis methods to learn the nature of the phenomenon, describe in detail what they experienced and how they experienced it, and find the essential elements and structure of the experience.
Therefore, the purpose of this study is to learn about the experiences and meanings of children's cancer art therapy experiences by master students majoring in art therapy, and to use it as data to enhance the understanding of children's cancer art practice.
The research question of this study is, "What is the experience of a master's degree in art therapy who has experienced on-site art therapy for children with childhood cancer, and what is its meaning and essence?"
For this study, five master's degree students majoring in art therapy with field experience in art therapy for children with childhood cancer were selected as participants. In-depth research was conducted non-face-to-face from October to November 2020, and interviews were conducted about two to three times each until the data was saturated.
The collected data were analyzed according to Max van Manen's analytical phenomenology research method, and six intrinsic and 17 subtopics were derived. The six essential topics are:
‘I feel new feelings about medical art therapy and children's inner circle’,‘Experiencing difficulties in setting up the structure of art therapy’,‘Not enough as an art therapist for children with cancer’,‘Try various things for better art therapy’,‘I feel a sense of accomplishment as a healer through the changing image of a child’,‘I found myself growing up as an art therapist’.
Based on these findings, the conclusion of the field practice experience of art therapy for children with a master's degree in art therapy is as follows.
First, a master's degree in art therapy meets a child cancer child with a special setting called an open studio, unlike other labs, and the trainee suffers from confusion and difficulty in an unexpected changing treatment environment. Second, master's degree students majoring in art therapy can experience the power of healing art therapy through the positive change of children with cancer. Third, a master's degree student majoring in art therapy feels that he is growing up as an art therapist through art therapy with children with childhood cancer.
The conclusions of this study contribute to the area of art therapy as follows:
First, this study wanted to convey vividly the experiences experienced by art therapy master students through on-site practice of art therapy for children with childhood cancer through individual statements. It is meaningful that this will enhance the understanding of the group of inner patients that are not easily accessible. In addition, it is hoped that art therapy targeting children of childhood cancer will be established in the field of medical art therapy by presenting the role and effect of art therapy for children of childhood cancer. Second, this study is meaningful in that the vivid statements of research participants can provide indirect experience in the field to the master's degree trainees who are about to practice pediatric cancer art therapy.
Finally, the subjects of art therapy in this study consisted mostly of children under the age of 13. For follow-up research, we propose various types of research, such as a master's degree in art therapy that conducted on-site art therapy practice for children under the age of 13 as well as children with cancer. In addition, this study is an experience study on art therapy for children with childhood cancer. Throughout the study, I learned that families who take care of children with cancer also have psychological difficulties. Therefore, I propose a follow-up study on the field practice of master's degree in art therapy for parents and siblings of childhood cancer patients.