BECKSTRAND CANCER FOUNDATION BRINGS FIRST PEDIATRIC ART THERAPY PROGRAM TO MATTEL CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL UCLA

NEWPORT BEACH, California (January 24, 2011) – Beckstrand Cancer Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to improving and enhancing quality of life for cancer patients and their families, today announced the expansion of its Beckstrand Art Therapy Program to include Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA, representing the first pediatric art therapy program offered at any University of California hospital. The program will launch in March, led by Art Therapist Carrie Cottone who currently heads the program at the Jonathan Jaques Children’s Cancer Center, part of Miller Children’s Hospital in Long Beach.

"Increasingly, members of the healthcare community have turned to alternative and complementary therapies to reduce patients' symptoms and boost patients' ability to cope with stress," explained Cottone. "The Beckstrand Art Therapy Program uses art and psychoanalysis to teach children and teens with cancer how to better manage their diagnosis and prognosis, and to aid in their recovery. It also utilizes the creative, psychotherapeutic process of art-making to ameliorate physical and emotional pain and foster psychological growth as they undergo treatment."

In the Art Therapy Program, the children learn to use brightly colored crayons, chalk, paint brushes, paper and clay as powerful healing tools in professionally-led activities. Studies show that children who participate in art therapy from the first hospitalization demonstrate collaborative behavior toward painful procedures such as lumbar punctures and bone marrow aspirations. A wide range of tools and techniques are used to encourage children to relax, communicate and share their needs and experiences in non-threatening ways, fostering peer interaction, increasing self-esteem, reducing pain and symptoms through pictorial expression, and helping children move from feelings of isolation to a sense of connection – from powerlessness to the satisfaction of self control.

To learn more about Beckstrand Cancer Foundation and The Diamond & Pearl Ball, visit www.beckstrand.org, www.diamondandpearlball.com, or call 949.955.0099.

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