The Power of Art in Therapy:
When Words Are Not Enough
Content from Youtube can't be displayed due to your current cookie settings. To show this content, please click "Consent & Show" to confirm that necessary data will be transferred to Youtube to enable this service. Further information can be found in our Privacy Policy. Changed your mind? You can revoke your consent at any time via your cookie settings.
When we talk about cancer, we often talk about scans, treatments, side effects, appointments, blood tests, and medical decisions.
And yes, all of this matters.
But cancer is not only something that happens to the body.
It also touches emotions, identity, relationships, memories, fears, hopes, and the way a person sees themselves.
Sometimes, people can talk about these things clearly.
Sometimes, they cannot.
Sometimes, words are simply not enough.
This was the heart of my MedTalk with Lorenza Oprandi, a clinicaln art therapist with a, non-verbal psychotherapy approach, certified neuroscience practitioner, med-tech, medical linguist, and clinical research coordinator.
Lorenza joined me to talk about the power of creative expression in therapy, especially for people living with or recovering from cancer.
And this conversation was special because it was not only theoretical. Lorenza showed us practical examples from her therapeutic work, including drawings and creative processes used in patient care.
If you can, I warmly recommend watching this MedTalk as a video, because the visual examples are an important part of the conversation.
What is art therapy?
Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy that uses creative expression as a way to explore, express, face and integrate emotions, experiences, and inner conflicts.
But let’s clear up one thing immediately:
Art therapy is not about being good at art.
You do not need to know how to draw.
You do not need to paint beautifully.
You do not need to create something “impressive”.
That is not the point.
In art therapy, the focus is not the final image.
The focus is the process.
What matters is what happens while a person creates. – and the meaning that all that has for the person her/himself.
Integrating what the person experiences during an art-therapy session is another and essential part of the therapy itself.
A drawing, object, colour, shape, movement, sound, or image can become a way to express something that may be too difficult to say out loud.
For cancer patients, this can be especially important.
A cancer diagnosis can bring fear, anger, grief, uncertainty, body changes, loss of control, and questions that are hard to name and deal with.
Art therapy can offer another language for these experiences and enables emotional self-regulation.
Why can art help when words are difficult?
Many people feel that they should be able to explain how they feel.
But illness does not always arrive in neat sentences.
A person may feel overwhelmed without knowing exactly why.
They may feel afraid but unable to describe the fear.
They may feel disconnected from their body.
They may feel changed, but not know how to explain that change.
Art therapy can help make inner experiences visible.
Lorenza explained that a created object — for example a drawing — can be both outside the person and still connected to them.
That distance can be helpful.
Something painful that was hidden inside can suddenly be looked at from the outside. It can be observed, discussed, changed, softened, or transformed.
This can bring relief.
Not because the problem disappears immediately, but because the person is no longer carrying it in the same invisible way.
It’s easy to do great things when you believe in what you do. That’s why I’m committed to helping more people like you, every day.
Art therapy and cancer care
During the MedTalk, Lorenza spoke about how art therapy can support people at different stages of the cancer journey.
Before treatment, it may help to express and/or to deal with the shock of diagnosis, fears about what will happen, and the feeling of losing control.
During treatment, it may support emotional processing, body awareness, and coping with uncertainty or physical weakness.
After treatment, it may help people adapt to a changed body, changed relationships, and the question many people quietly carry:
Who am I now?
This is something we do not talk about enough.
Finishing treatment does not always mean feeling “finished” emotionally.
Many people need time to rebuild trust in their body.
They may need time to understand what has happened to them.
They may need support to feel like themselves again — or to discover who they are becoming after cancer.
Art therapy can be one way to support this process.
Regaining a sense of agency
One word came up again and again in our conversation:
Agency.
Agency means having a sense that you can act, choose, respond, and influence something.
Cancer can take away that feeling.
Appointments are scheduled for you.
Treatments are planned.
Your body may react in ways you cannot control.
You may feel dependent on results, doctors, medication, and time.
In art therapy, the person gets to do something.
They choose a colour.
They draw a line.
They shape an object.
They move something.
They change something.
They decide what something means to them.
This may sound small.
But when someone has felt powerless, the act of creating can be deeply meaningful.
It says:
I am still here.
I can still express.
I can still shape something.
I can still respond.
That matters.
The patient example Lorenza shared
In the MedTalk, Lorenza presented a patient example from oncology rehabilitation.
She showed how one patient used drawings and objects to explore fear, inner conflict, boundaries, body perception, and emotional autonomy.
One of the images the patient worked with was a “black monster” — a powerful inner image connected to fear, pain, and unresolved emotional conflict.
Over time, through the therapeutic process, this image changed.
It became less frightening.
It became more understandable.
It became something the patient could look at, work with, and integrate.
This is one of the most moving parts of the conversation.
Because it shows that art therapy is not about interpreting someone’s drawing from the outside. It is not about the therapist saying, “This colour means that” or “This shape means this.”
Instead, the meaning belongs to the patient.
The therapist supports the process, asks questions, creates safety, and helps the person explore what the image means to them.
That distinction is important.
Art therapy is not about judging the artwork. Nor it is about passively “absorbing” a creative object (music, painting or any other artistic expression).
It is about trusting the process in order to enable a more aware connection with the subconscious, which helps to more psychological autonomy.
Moreover, it is about listening to oneself through what the artwork helps the person express.
“Beautiful” is not the goal
One thing I loved in this conversation was Lorenza’s reminder that art therapy is not about performance.
In fact, trying to create something beautiful can sometimes get in the way.
Many of us are trained to think that art must look good.
We worry about mistakes. We compare. We say, “I can’t draw.”
But in therapy, the question is not:
Is this beautiful?
The question is:
What does this help me express?
A scribble can matter.
A dark shape can matter.
A small object can matter.
A single colour can matter.
A movement can matter.
The value is not in artistic skill.
The value is in expression, process, and meaning and integration in the everyday life.
Art as another language
As a medical communicator, this part speaks very deeply to me.
So much of my work is about language.
How do we explain cancer?
How do we make medical words understandable?
How do we help patients ask questions?
How do we make space for people to understand what is happening to them?
But this MedTalk reminded me of something important:
Not all communication is verbal.
Sometimes, the body speaks.
Sometimes, silence speaks.
Sometimes, an image speaks.
Sometimes, art speaks.
For people living with cancer, this can be powerful.
Because cancer language can be heavy. Medical words can feel cold or frightening. And sometimes, even the most caring words still do not fully reach the place where the fear sits.
Art therapy may help open a different door.
Support can also happen online
Lorenza also explained that she offers her services online.
Of course, online therapy is not exactly the same as meeting in person, and some situations may need face-to-face support.
But online access can still be very valuable, especially for people who have long waiting times, live far away, feel physically weak, or struggle to find someone with the right expertise nearby.
For many patients, access matters.
And if support can reach someone who otherwise might receive no support at all, that is important.
Connect with Lorenza Oprandi
Lorenza’s website: https://www.bien-dans-mon-corps.ch/
Email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
Her work focuses on non-verbal psychotherapy, body confidence, emotional support, and helping people feel more at ease in their bodies.
Lorenza works in English, German, Swiss-German (“Schwytzerdütsch”), French and
Italian.
Watch the MedTalk
If this topic speaks to you, I invite you to watch the full MedTalk with Lorenza Oprandi.
Because this episode is highly visual, I recommend watching it on YouTube if possible. Lorenza shares drawings and examples that help show how art therapy can support emotional processing in a very practical way.
You can also listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music.