Welcome to the Georgetown Lombardi Arts & Humanities Program (AHP) newsletter. In this week's issue we feature the new initiative Collage

Care: The Method™ brought to the Georgetown Lombardi Arts & Humanities Program by artist, writer and art collector Laurie Kanyer.

Collage Care: The Method™

Laurie Kanyer, Let's Fly for Ten Months, 2022, 12x12 inches, Analog Collage

The AHP is excited to collaborate with Laurie Kanyer to train AHP artists-in-residence to be Collage Care: The Method™ facilitators. These artists will receive rigorous and intensive training, ultimately receiving a Collage Care: The Method™ certification, that will enable them to facilitate workshops and programs using these wellness tools.

With a background in family studies and human development, Kanyer first discovered collage- making's effectiveness while teaching in high schools. Her method, now used globally, aids in stress management, emotional expression, and cognitive processing.

In the conversation below, AHP artist-in-residence Dylan Klempner interviews Kanyer as she describes the development and impact of her work and books, Collage Care: The Method™, Collage Care: The Method Book 2™, and Collage Care: Transforming Emotions and Experiences with Collage™.

These books show readers how to use collage making as a tool to help, heal, encourage, and improve lives. Empirical evidence suggests it can help reduce stress hormones and provide opportunities for confidential emotional expression. Kanyer emphasizes the need for further research and hopes for the continued growth of Collage Care: The Method™.

Visit Laurie Kanyer's website to learn more about Collage Care: The Method™.

Laurie Kanyer with husband Doug Kanyer and dog Penny

Can you tell us a little about your background? How did you discover the benefits of collage-making?

At age 14, I decided I wanted to be either an artist or a therapist. I earned degrees in

family studies and human development. When my first child was born, I joined a

community parent education program called Backyard Centers as a participant and was

soon asked to join the staff. This marked the beginning of my journey into parenting

education, family life education, and eventually mental health and social work. Not long

after that, I was invited to teach at a local high school. I accepted without realizing there

were no textbooks, syllabi, or handouts provided. I improvised mini-lectures and asked

students to respond using collage-making or reflection papers. This led to what is now

known as Collage Care: The Method™. I used this method for years before moving on

to work at a local hospital offering parent education services. There, I developed class

formulas and facilitation methods for Collage Care: The Method™. Later, in private

practice, I worked with pregnant and parenting women experiencing poverty. Due to

their complex circumstances, I used collage-making to help them communicate their

learning experiences.

Collage Care: The Method™ by Laurie Kanyer

How did your book, Collage Care: The Method™ come to be written?

Several years ago, my husband and I had transitioned from collecting paintings to

collages. Conversations with artists also revealed that they turned to collage-making

during times of profound stress—loss of a loved one, job loss, divorce, or other

significant events. This inspired me to explore further. When COVID-19 hit, I worried

about the artists and decided to write a book incorporating lessons from my work with

high school students and mothers. This book includes empirical evidence of how

collage heals and transforms lives. Collage Care: The Method™ books features work

from our collection. It also details exercise experiences that we’ve used with students

and clients over the years.

What is special about collage as a healing tool?

Based on the theory of Transactional Analysis and the research of Erik Erickson, we

know that children between the ages of three to six process things symbolically and

through play. During this period, they make significant decisions about their identity,

relationships, and understanding of the world. When we present information to our adult thinking and aware self, and then process it using a sensory, childlike experience, we access different parts of the self. Through collage-making, my students were talking about sophisticated adult topics, while we used our childlike system to process the information. This idea supports why we think Collage Care: The Method™ works. We offer a step-by-step process that enables people to think, choose, and use new strategies in the world today that can affect the future and revise their thinking about the past.

Could you tell me about some of your research findings?

To be clear, more research needs to be done. Thus far, our observational evidence,

gathered through my work and in collaboration with others, demonstrates how collage-

making helps. For example, collage alleviates mental stress and strain by allowing us to

use the substrate—the sturdy paper where collage elements are placed—to unburden

our minds. By placing elements on the substrate, what we experience becomes more

tangible, both emotionally and cognitively, because we can witness it. This process

enables us to develop a unique language through symbolic representation. In some of

my prior work, I focused on ways to manage and modulate stress hormones. I

recognized the use of collage was essential when working with pregnant and parenting

women. I found that collage-making helped modulate and pace stress hormones,

reducing the load on the mothers and babies. In my own life, in 2016, I faced a stressful

situation when my niece in Texas was about to have a baby. I wanted to be with her but

couldn’t. I knew I needed to manage my stress. I turned to collage-making. After creating 300 collages, I realized how profoundly transformative the process was.

Laurie Kanyer, Spiral Start, 2021, 16 x 24 inches, Analog Collage

Visit Laurie Kanyer's website to learn more about Collage Care: The Method™.

Kanyer's books are available as paperback copies on Amazon

and as ebooks on her website.

The Georgetown Lombardi Arts & Humanities Program (AHP) promotes a holistic approach to healthcare for patients, caregivers, physicians, nurses, staff members, and students through the use of music, dance, expressive writing, and visual arts. These therapeutic modalities are normally provided throughout the MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., and online through Eventbrite courses. The AHP is a program of the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.