Ponzio Creative Arts Therapy Program

The Ponzio Creative Arts Therapy Program at Children's Hospital Colorado in Colorado offers art, dance/movement, music and yoga therapies. The program helps children to identify, explore and transform emotional and psychological difficulties. By giving kids an outlet for creative expression, creative arts therapy can be used to help kids get better faster.

What is creative arts therapy?

Creative arts therapy uses the arts to help children express, create and heal in an open and supportive environment.  Art, music, dance, movement and yoga become tools for communication, emotional release, and ultimately, healing.

What is the Ponzio Creative Arts Therapy Program?

The Ponzio Creative Arts Therapy Program works directly with your child's clinical team to find the best approaches to healing. Whether your child needs individual, group or family therapy, our master's and doctoral level therapists customize a program designed to improve psychological, physical, cognitive and social functioning.

The only program of its kind among children's hospitals in the United States

The Ponzio Creative Arts Therapy Program offers children and families a broad creative palette for the healing of body, mind and spirit. Simply stated, no other children's hospital in the country has the breadth of offerings, research expertise or cutting-edge interventions. Through this unique program, kids are finding their voices, their passions and their strengths. The program can benefit any child, at any age, with any diagnosis or physical ability.

Plus, Children's state-of-the-art hospital has facilities specially dedicated to the Creative Arts Therapy Program including an art therapy studio, a recording studio for music and video recording, and a studio for yoga/dance/music therapy. Patients and their families can also enjoy two galleries with changing art exhibitions as part of the Ponzio program. Read more about our art collection.

How can this program benefit my child?

Creative arts therapy offers complementary approaches to your child's traditional medical or psychiatric treatment, which can:

• Promote self-expression, communication and emotional well-being
• Develop coping skills for stress, trauma and loss
• Provide a means for nonverbal communication and emotional release
• Stimulate and organize thought processes
• Normalize a child's experience and hospital stay
• Build physical and mental strength, flexibility and awareness
• Enhance family communication
• Support pain management

How do our creative arts therapists work with kids?

When children are hospitalized, they often experience a great deal of stress and the need for an emotional outlet or release. Our therapists use the creative arts to help children work through their problems, deal with pain and express themselves.

Our master's level creative arts therapists are experts in their fields. They serve as an integral component of your child's treatment team, working in tandem with psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses and counselors toward your child's individualized treatment goals.

Specific needs addressed

Creative arts therapy can help children with the following needs:

• Social stimulation
• Cognitive stimulation
• Relaxation training
• Psycho-emotional-spiritual support
• Stress and pain management
• Physical stimulation
• Sensory-environment stimulation
• Family conflict resolution
• Medical compliance

What is the history of the Ponzio Creative Arts Therapy Program?

The Ponzio Creative Arts Therapy Program has provided services to children since 2005, when Craig Ponzio made a generous donation. His contribution allowed Children's Hospital Colorado to hire eight creative arts therapists and to create three studio spaces and two exhibition galleries.

How can my child get started in the program?

Creative Arts Therapy could be an essential part of your child's visit to Children's Hospital Colorado. To get started, please contact the Ponzio Creative Arts Therapy Program by calling (720) 777-4360.