Mindfulness-Based Art Therapy to Reduce the Anxiety Being Experienced by Chronic Kidney Disease Patients Who Required Hemodialysis

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and hemodialysis are conditions that potentially trigger negative emotional responses such as anxiety, depression, anger, guilt, and fear of death. Anxiety is commonly appear following the diagnosis of kidney failure and the requirement of hemodialysis. The anxiety is based on the potential impact of body image change and death. The anxiety may reduce the individual capacity on daily life and on dealing with the future. Mindfulness Based Art Therapy (MBAT) is a therapeutic method that combines the philosophy of mindfulness and art therapy. MBAT helps clients to understand the emotional self and self-expression by art activities. This research is aimed at examining whether MBAT can reduce the anxiety being experienced by CKD patients who are required hemodialysis. Six (6) adult patients participated in this quasi-experimental research, using one group prepost test design. The MBAT intervention consists of 8 sessions with the interval of 1-2 sessions per week. The result indicates that MBAT reduces the anxiety of the all six participants.