CancerCare Children and Young People’s Service

To mark Childhood Cancer Awareness Month (September 2022), CancerCare highlights its Children and Young People’s Service. You can read the full article below. 

Our Children and Young People’s Service is always keen on using inventive techniques to engage with children affected by cancer and who may be less responsive to traditional "talking therapies” and may better express their feelings through play and creativity.

Briony Elliott (Morecambe Centre)

Briony specialises in dramatherapy which can allow children, who may be experiencing difficult life situations, to explore their emotions through role play, storytelling and movement. 

Briony became interested in the technique while studying for a degree in Drama and Theatre Studies during which she spent a summer supporting children and adults with additional needs 

Following her graduation, she completed a Masters in Dramatherapy at Derby University which focused on how dramatherapy can help people process trauma and loss and rediscover their sense of self during the therapeutic process. 

Her role at CancerCare involves working with younger children experiencing bereavement or with a family member who has been diagnosed with cancer. 

Briony said: “Working as a therapist for children and young people is something I consider to be a huge privilege. Being alongside someone as they play, create, process and reflect, while facilitating potential healing and growth, is a real honour and being invited into someone’s imaginative world during our sessions is something I don’t take for granted. 

“CancerCare prides itself on being a non-clinical environment and it is wonderful to see the young people and their families welcomed with genuine warmth and compassion from the moment they walk through the door. The ethos of support and care really does filter through the entire organisation which makes CancerCare such an amazing charity.” 

Tina Allonby (Barrow & Kendal Centres) 

Art Therapist Tina has been working with CancerCare since 2020, helping children and young people who come to us. 

Her work involves encouraging and facilitating the child’s self-expression through the use of a variety of media including drawing, painting, crafting, clay modelling and sculpting from scrap materials. 

“My primary approach is ‘non-directive’ which allows the freedom to explore and express difficult thoughts and feelings through the use of art materials. This offers the client another ‘language’, non-verbal and symbolic, and for some, it is often easier to use artmaking as a means of communicating and expressing their emotions,” said Tina 

“By symbolising feelings in images, it can make them seem less threatening or overwhelming. The artmaking process and resulting work can then provide the focus for reflection and discussion,” she added. 

The art created by the client is confidential and stored securely as a record of their progress.  

At the end of therapy, Tina reviews the journey with the client by looking through the artwork and their experience of creating it. 

One of Tina’s clients, 11-year-old Elizabeth, spoke of how art therapy helped her. 

“When my mum was diagnosed with cancer I was really upset and didn't know what to do or say so I began coming to art therapy at CancerCare. It really helped me to express my feelings and explain how I was feeling in a welcoming environment.

Our Children and Young People’s Service is always keen on using inventive techniques to engage with children affected by cancer and who may be less responsive to traditional "talking therapies” and may better express their feelings through play and creativity.