Examining Art in Grief Associated with Client Death to Discover Effective Natural Processing of Grief: A Retrospective Heuristic Examination of an Art Therapy Student’s Experience
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Author
Knight, Cara
Date
2006
Degree
Master of Arts in Art Therapy
Abstract
Professionals in mental health and medical fields are likely to encounter difficult situations when
working with clients who die within their clinical setting, often making countertransference and
professional burnout possible. This paper discusses establishing personal awareness of such
feelings through utilizing creative art making. In contemplating her own experiences in dealing
with deaths of patients in a long-term care facility, the author presents the concept of using
personal art making in order to cope with the stress and grief evoked from such experiences in
order to identify a workable process to help other professionals. Although this is a significant
experience many professionals face, there is currently little literature available concerning the
use of art to help heal from such grief experiences. The author used a heuristic retrospective
method to examine personal artwork created during her own grief period in order to determine if
the experience holds value for others in the helping profession. As a result of inspection, a
consistent theme of imagery, as well as a progression in emotional indicators throughout the
artwork was identified. In addition, placement of the imagery on the Expressive Therapies
Continuum (ETC) for evaluation of emotional release was established to associate personal
feelings with each image, thereby allowing the author to document her phases of grief through
the imagery. Thus, through reexamination of the artwork in combination with a survey from an
Art Review Board, the author was able to discover her natural process for grief work through the
use of personal art making and further identified what aspects of this process might be deemed
valuable for use by other professionals.