An Expressive Arts Approach To Healing Loss And Grief

Drawing on expertise in both expressive arts and grief counselling, this book highlights the use of expressive arts therapeutic methods in confronting and healing grief and bereavement. Establishing a link between these two approaches, it widens our understanding of loss and grief. With personal and professional insight, Renzenbrink illuminates the healing and restorative power of creative arts therapies, as well as addressing the impact of communion with others and the role that expressive arts can play in community change. Covering a broad understanding of grief, the discussion incorporates migration and losing one's home, chronic illness and natural disasters, highlighting the breadth of types of loss and widening our perceptions of this. Grief specialists are given imaginative and nourishing tools to incorporate into their practice and better support their clients. An invaluable resource to expand understanding of grief and explore the power of expressive arts to heal both communities and individuals.

The use of the arts in psychotherapy is a burgeoning area of interest, particularly in the field of bereavement, where it is a staple intervention in hospice programs, children’s grief camps, specialized programs for trauma or combat exposure, work with bereaved parents, widowed elders or suicide survivors, and in many other contexts. But how should clinicians differentiate between the many different approaches and techniques, and what criteria should they use to decide which technique to use—and when? Grief and the Expressive Arts provides the answers using a crisp, coherent structure that creates a conceptual and relational scaffold for an artistically inclined grief therapy. Each of the book’s brief chapters is accessible and clearly focused, conveying concrete methods and anchoring them in brief case studies, across a range of approaches featuring music, creative writing, visual arts, dance and movement, theatre and performance and multi-modal practices. Any clinician—expressive arts therapist, grief counselor, or something in between—looking for a professionally oriented but scientifically informed book for guidance and inspiration need look no further than Grief and the Expressive Arts.

For nearly three decades, Sandra Bertman has been exploring the power of the arts and belief--symbols, metaphors, stories--to alleviate psychological and spiritual pain not only of patients, grieving family members, and affected communities but also of the nurses, clergy and physicians who minister to them. Her training sessions and clinical interventions are based on the premise that bringing out the creative potential inherent in each of us is just as relevant-- perhaps more so--as psychiatric theory and treatment models since grief and loss are an integral part of life. Thus, this work was compiled to illuminate the many facets that link grief, counseling, and creativity. The multiple strategies suggested in these essays will help practitioners enlarge their repertoire of hands-on skills and foster introspection and empathy in readers.

Art and other expressive therapies are increasingly used in grief counseling, not only among children and adolescents, but throughout the developmental spectrum. Creative activities are commonly used in group and individual psychotherapy programs, but it is only relatively recently that these expressive modalities have been employed within the context of clinical grief work in structured settings. These forms of nonverbal communication are often more natural ways to express thoughts and feelings that are difficult to discuss, particularly when it comes to issues surrounding grief and loss. Packed with pictures and instructional detail, this book includes an eight-session curriculum for use with grief support groups as well as alternative modalities of grief art therapy.

Think you have the answers to LOVE! How many times must we bump our heads doing the same things over and over within relationships? Why does it seem as if we continue to pick up the same person and place them into our lives, have you ever considered making some changes and just couldn't figure out where to start? If this is something you've asked yourself and you are serious about it then allow me to help you. Turn the pages of a book that offers more than words of advice but words of encouragement taken from situations of my life and see how I made it through and then ask yourself " why can't it be you"?

Using the Creative Therapies to Cope with Grief and Loss is a comprehensive and exciting work that illustrates the use of art, play, music, dance/movement, drama, and animals as creative approaches for helping clients cope with grief and loss issues. The editors’ primary purpose is to present an array of creative treatment approaches, which cover the broad spectrum of grief, more than just loss through death. Well renowned, well-credentialed, and professional creative arts therapists in the areas of art, play, music, dance/movement, drama, and animal-assisted therapies have contributed to this work. In addition, some of the chapters are complimented with photographs of client work in these areas. The reader is provided with a snapshot of how these various creative arts therapies are used to treat children and adults diagnosed struggling with loss or complicated grief. This informative book will be of special interest to educators, students, therapists as well as people working with families and children coping with loss.

This wide-ranging book on art therapy and grief provides everything an art therapist needs to feel confident in creating an effective treatment plan. It features fourteen clear-cut protocols, outlining 4-8 week curriculums for working with Complicated Grief, and explains the theory which informs the practice, including popular and evolving models such as Attachment Theory, Mindfulness, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Art Therapy Relational Neuroscience (ATR-N). Suitable for a variety of settings and clinical populations, the book breaks through the analytical jargon of the field and provides first-person narratives of art therapists exploring their own experiences of grief and client case studies.

At least one in five pregnancies ends in miscarriage, yet pregnancy loss remains a taboo topic and effective aftercare is rarely available for those who have experienced it. Grief Unseen explains the different kinds of childbearing losses, such as failed fertility treatment, ectopic pregnancy, and stillbirth, and explores their emotional impact on women and their partners, and the process of healing. An established art therapist and mental health counselor, Laura Seftel shares her own experiences of miscarriage and recovery, and describes the use of art and ritual as a response to loss in traditional and modern cultures. She presents a rich variety of artists who have explored pregnancy loss in their work, including Frida Kahlo, Judy Chicago, and Tori Amos, and shows how people with no previous artistic experience can generate creative responses as part of the healing process. The book includes step-by-step exercises in guided imagery, poetry, visual art, journaling, and creating rituals. This accessible, positive resource will be useful to practitioners in the fields of medicine, mental health, art therapy, and counseling, as well as women and families who have suffered pregnancy loss.