Hope Tables Help Families Process Emotions with Art Therapy

In the months since devastating floods disrupted life as normal for thousands of Eastern Kentuckians, Bluegrass Care Navigators has actively supported our own employees and patients in their first steps toward recovery. Yet even as they helped purchase supplies and coordinate support to teammates from the organization’s headquarters in Lexington, the agency’s counselors and therapists began to plan how to give love and care to the community at large.

“We know families will face many stressful days ahead as they live in alternative locations, navigate the complicated systems of relief aid, and deal with the grief and processing of loss,” said Dave Carper, Counseling Resource Officer for Bluegrass Care Navigators.

Carper and art therapist Whitney Clay took guidance from their teammates stationed in Hazard. Counselor Susan Houston and social worker Samantha Craft began working with community leaders on the first day of the flooding response. They wanted to provide a therapeutic activity that could be set up where families were seeking assistance, and that would provide opportunities for distraction, reflection, and even a little bit of fun in the midst of so much stress.

With that goal in mind, Bluegrass Care Navigators began the “Hope Table” project. Counselors and chaplains from the organization set up Hope Tables at state parks and disaster recovery centers with activities and art projects to give children something to do while parents completed paperwork or to give families something new to do while living in an alternative setting. While participating in play and fun, counselors guided families through discussions about their emotions, if desired. Families were also invited to write or draw a message of hope and leave it behind as an inspiration to others.

“Art and play are such mindful activities, and they can be powerful tools for allowing emotions to come out in healthy ways,” said Whitney Clay, integrative medicine coordinator for Bluegrass Care Navigators. “We want to be present with families and give them the opportunity to process whatever feelings come forward at the Hope Table.”