The Yale Combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Residency Program emphasizes culture building and bonding in an effort to better themselves as healers and caregivers. Every year, Benjamin Doolittle, MD, MDiv, program director, chooses a theme for his residency program.
This year, the theme was “The Eras of Medicine” and Doolittle together with his residents explored the history of the role of healer. In keeping with the program’s theme for the year, the residents collaborated with New Haven’s Ely Center of Contemporary Art, directed by Aimée Burg, to create a work of art that explored the relationship between healing and the creation of art.
The Ely Center of Contemporary Art is a non-profit organization dedicated to presenting contemporary art exhibitions and events that “are inclusive, diverse, and promote dialogue around global and community issues.” There are programs throughout the country focusing on the power of healing in art, specifically for patients. Most hospitals have some form of art therapy provided to patients during their admission. Very few, if any, provide the same form of therapy to the physicians, nurses, community workers, and leaders who serve their patients every day in what can be an emotionally, physically, and mentally grueling job.
The Ely Center has had “a long relationship with artists in the art therapy field.” In January, they contacted Doolittle to collaborate with the residents on an art and healing project.
The initial goal of the project from the Ely Center’s perspective was to “bridge our sectors and create new opportunities for artists within the art healing sector,” explained Board Member Helen Kauder.
The project involved a workshop in which the residents brought in an object from their personal lives that they felt exemplified their role as healers. The artist, Faustin Adeniran, together with Burg, led the residents in weaving their objects together into a small metal grid.
The finished product, “The Healers,” is now a mosaic that exemplifies how “this residency program identifies as healers,” said Doolittle.
Adeniran also wanted to show the pain and joy that comes from making art and how this parallels the healing process, which is itself painful and rewarding. The hands within the mosaic symbolize the role of touch in caring for others and how healing is an offering through the caregivers’ hands. The different colors show how care comes through regardless of our different backgrounds.
The process of making art is therapeutic and coming out of the pandemic both doctors and art organizations had to learn how to live in a world that was so shaken up; “healing the healers became another goal of this project,” said Kauder.
Following the workshop, all participants completed a survey, which revealed the residents’ belief that most front-line caregivers could benefit from such an experience. The Ely Center hopes to turn this into a more permanent collaboration with multi-session workshops to co-create larger-scale public artworks for all spaces within Yale School of Medicine.
In affiliation with the Ely Center, Adeniran will present his work, “Art and Healing, Visible Mending,” at TransCultural Exchange’s International Conference at MIT in Cambridge, Mass. in March 2025. It had been on display at the Ely Center for a month and will now be displayed permanently in the medicine-pediatrics program’s continuity practice.
The Department of Internal Medicine at Yale School of Medicine is among the nation's premier departments, bringing together an elite cadre of clinicians, investigators, educators, and staff in one of the world's top medical schools. To learn more, visit Internal Medicine.