Turning Heartbeats Into Art and Harmony

Patients trace their EKG waves, record their heart rhythms and build art and music together in a creative arts therapy group designed to spark hope and resilience

On a recent afternoon inside Story Corner at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, a small group of patients and their families gathered around a table covered with heart inspired art materials and hand shakers—a  steel tongue drum and guitar set at the ready nearby.

The sound and images of the rhythm guiding the group did not come from a metronome. It came from a heartbeat.

An art therapist invited patients to begin by creating artwork out of heart shape pieces that helped them reflect on sources of hope and resilience. The theme of the group asks all participants, “What gives them strength to keep going?”

Meanwhile, a music therapist using an electrocardiogram app captured a brief recording of one child’s heart—a soft, steady pulse lasting about 15 seconds. The recording was edited and looped transforming the biological rhythm into a repeating beat that filled the room.

Soon the children began to play along.

Shakers rustled, the steel tongue drum chimed, and feet tapped out patterns over the steady pulse. What began as the quiet sound of one heart gradually expanded into a layered rhythm shared by everyone in the room.

The session was part of a series hosted by the Creative Arts Therapy team at the hospital for more than a year. This year’s theme during Creative Arts Week centered around “Heartbeats,” and highlighted a collaboration between our music and art therapists. Under the name “Our Creative Hearts,” this Creative Arts therapy group explores how the body’s most fundamental rhythm can be a source of hope, creativity, and connection. The group invites patients and families to interpret their heartbeats through music and visual art.

The session focuses on communal art and music.

The process begins with a music therapist recording a patient’s heartbeat using a specialized stethoscope that connects to an EKG application. The familiar peaks and valleys of the heart’s electrical pattern appear on the screen, forming the jagged line that many people recognize from the hospital monitors.

But here, the waveform becomes something else entirely.

Patients are invited by an art therapist to trace the pattern from an iPad onto paper, pink and red heart-shaped cut-outs prepared for the activity. Some children carefully re-create the peaks and dips of the EKG. Others transform the pattern into colorful collages, layering jeweled stickers, washi tape, marker drawings, words, images, and texture around the rhythm of their own heartbeat.

The room is busy as the children focus on their artwork, translating the visual language of medicine into something personal.

Then the collaboration of art and music begins.

Using audio software, a music therapist edits and loops the recorded heartbeat, so the brief sound repeats steadily. Hand shakers are passed around the room, and patients and family members are invited to follow the pulse of an individual child. Patients are encouraged to share their personal message of strength and hope from their art piece, their words sung into the heartbeat music.

The intervention is structured but flexible. An art therapist invites participants to share their artwork with the group. A music therapist guides the rhythm, encouraging participants to listen closely and respond to the beat, while leaving space for each child to shape the experience.

The aim of these sessions differs from that of traditional performances, with a focus on helping participants reach therapeutic goals. This includes fostering a family-centered group with inclusive participation, enhancing social skills, boosting mood, and addressing specific therapy goals tailored to the needs of each participant in every session.

Creative Arts therapy at Packard Children’s encompasses both music and art therapists and regularly emphasizes collaborative interventions. These interventions use a diverse array of artistic modalities as mediums for expression and alternate focus, offering a valuable coping mechanism during treatment. They create moments of control within an environment where daily routines are frequently very structured. In a “Our Creative Hearts” session, the music and art carry an additional layer of meaning.

The rhythm at the center of the room belongs to one of the children—a sound that usually remains hidden inside the body. By turning the pulse into a shared musical and artistic foundation, therapists create an experience that is both deeply personal and communal.

Around the room, the beat gradually grows fuller. Some children follow the rhythm closely. Others drift slightly ahead or behind it, experimenting with sound or art. The therapists keep the pulse steady, gently guiding the group.

For a few minutes, the hospital room feels less like a clinical space and more like a Creative Arts studio.

And through it all, the quiet thump of a single heartbeat keeps time for everyone.

Learn more about our Creative Arts Therapy program >