In their joint article, “A Partnership in Creative Arts and Healing” Nesbit and Decristofaro “document the formation of a community partnership between Lesley University and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the creation of a hospital-based arts and healing program.” The article features the journey of the late Lesley alumna M.L. O’Connor, whose vision and passion for the use of creative arts in her own healing process served as catalysts for development of the program, and whose values and beliefs served as the tenets of its foundation. “In M.L.’s vision of the hospital-based arts program the patients were engaged, each in his or her own creative process, expressing fears, fantasies, and hopes through their poems or drawings in ways for whatever reason, they could not through vocal expression.”

 

painting of M.L. O'Connor by Joanna Calabro

 

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Author bios

Marion Nesbit, Ph.D., is a psychologist and senior faculty member in the Independent Study Degree Program in the Graduate School of Lesley University.  She was privileged to serve as M.L. O’Connor’s faculty thesis advisor for both masters and doctoral degrees and is a founding member of the Creative Arts Program Advisory Committee at DFCI. Susan Decristofaro, RN, MSOCN, is the Director of Patient Family Education at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.  She was the clinical preceptor for ML O’Connor’s DFCI internship and is the founding administrator and also a founding member of the Creative Arts Program Advisory Committee.

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