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In April, 2011, Dr. Lalinde was asked by Miami Children's hospital administration to develop a monthly healing arts session for the children in the inpatient psychiatric center at their hospital. One of the limitations expressed by the center's staff was for the sessions to be one-hour in length. It was believed that the children would have great difficulty staying on task. The staff agreed to experiment with a two-hour session in order to achieve the session’s goals. It worked and the children, ages 6 to 18 (divided into two separate age groups) are totally engaged!
N.T. Hope provides monthly Hope and Healing expressive arts for children and teens at Miami Children’s Hospital - inpatient psychiatric center. These 2.5 hour sessions were designed by Dr. Lalinde who facilitates the sessions with N.T. Hope collaborator, Lela
Lombardo, a multidisciplinary artist residing in Miami, Florida. Dr. Lalinde says about the design process,
“I have seen despair up-close in children. It makes my heart ache. I wanted to create something very special for them - to help them know not only how loved they are but the importance of loving themselves and keeping their hopes and dreams alive.”
In these monthly sessions, the children and teens are introduced to the concept of the mind - body - spirit connection through a discussion about how to turn their hopes and dreams into a reality. The children and teens also have an opportunity to create an
outer expression of their inner world through an art process, music and song. The art process varies and has included the creation of hope chests, family shields/crests and a gift giving process to self.
Mind-body-spirit practices discussed include:
The monthly sessions are held in the hospital’s Michael Fux’s Foundation room. Discussions are underway to expand the sessions to include outpatients.
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