Integrating Art Therapy with the Sound Heart Spiritual Care Protocol in the Families of Children with Cancer

The spiritual crisis due to the lack of explanation about the cause of life's sufferings, its purpose and meaning along with the consequences of the care burden of parents as informal caregivers, disrupt the spiritual health of cancerous children's families which need "family-centered" spiritual care. Art as a spiritual phenomenon along with enlightenment and intuition, leads human to health. The aim of this study was to explain the integration method of art therapy in the spiritual care protocol of the sound heart model of cancerous children's families.

This combined study was performed in 1401 based on the Cresswell et al. model (2003) with a sequential-variable approach (exploratory and explanatory) and the Islamic theory of spiritual health (sound heart model). Qualitative data of unsystematic review and contractual content analysis of applications of art therapy in the treatment of patients' distresses were combined with quantitative data of numerous clinical trials based on the sound heart model as a protocol for conducting spiritual counseling sessions. The meta-inferential validations were performed in two sections, - in the quantitative data section through "internal-external validity”, - in the qualitative data section with "reliability or capability index".

Family-centered spiritual care for spiritual self-care empowerment is implemented in four steps: 1. Establishing spiritual relationship with the patient and family based on compassion with the aim of gaining trust and attention to spiritual suffering; 2. Increasing knowledge with the aim of developing self-awareness along with self-compassion and understanding the positive aspects of problems; 3. Developing communication for strengthening a secure attachment to God, strengthening the spiritual connection with people and the world of creation for creating the courage to face the crisis of disease, hope, positive thinking; 4. Motivation for strengthening the adaptation ability, creating a sense of self-efficacy. The use of different types of art in spiritual care sessions was explained.

Considering the effect of art and spirituality in promoting the spiritual health of the family, the use of a combined protocol of spiritual care of sound heart with art therapy in the care of cancerous children's families is recommended.