Clay Work and Body Image in Art Therapy: Using Metaphor and Symbolism to Heal

by Trisha Crocker, Susan M.D. Carr

Overview

Clay Work and Body Image in Art Therapy provides an important addition to resources available in the field of clay work and art therapy, highlighting the unique sensory aspects of the medium and its ability to provide a therapeutic resource for women who experience body image issues.

Chapters offer a comprehensive distillation of current knowledge in the field of body image, clay work, neuroscience, and art therapy, building a theoretical framework around personal narratives. Case studies examine the benefits of exploring body image through clay work within art therapy practice, providing a positive and contained way to find personal acceptance and featuring photographs of clay body image sculptures created by research participants that highlight their individual stories and experiences. As well as offering both clinical and practical implications, the text provides a full protocol for the research and evaluation methods carried out, enabling further replication of the intervention and research methods by other therapists.

This book highlights clay work as a significant resource for art therapists, arts in health practitioners, and counsellors, providing an emotive yet contained approach to the development of personal body image acceptance and self-compassion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367564650
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/10/2021
Pages:	214
Sales rank:	963,319
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Trisha Crocker, PhD, is an art therapist working with at-risk children and women in private practice. She runs workshops in clay-making and body image from her pottery in Oxfordshire, England.

Susan M.D. Carr, PhD, is an artist, author, and art therapist in private practice, and currently co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Art Therapy. She has also developed and researched Portrait Therapy.

Table of Contents

List of Figures xi

Acknowledgements xiv

Section 1 Preparing the Ground - Digging for Clay 1

1 Introduction and Context: Body Image, Art Therapy, and Clay Work 3

2 The Distorted Mirror: Body Image, the Critical Mother, and Shame 20

3 Making Connections: Metaphor, Evolution, and Neuroscience 36

Section 2 Vignettes and Case Studies - Shaping the Self 49

4 Case Vignettes, Study One: Sessions One, Two, Three, and Four 51

5 Case Studies, Study Two: Metaphor, Symbolism, and Body Image 91

6 Case Studies, Study Two: Mothers' and Others' Influence on Body Image 108

7 Case Studies, Study Two: Clay Work as Meaningful Play 123

Section 3 Protocol, Evaluation Methods, and Conclusions - Opening the Kiln 135

8 Intervention Protocol 137

9 Methods of Analysis 151

10 Adding the Glaze: Finding Meaning and Healing through Metaphor and Symbolism 160

Bibliography 179

Index 196

Editorial Reviews

"Clay Work and Body Image in Art Therapy is an insightful synthesis of women's authentic expressions of body image experience and representation, with extensive theoretical integration and analysis. Trisha Crocker and Susan Carr present, through the art-based vignettes and the authors' reflective writing, a lyrical and clinical account of new knowledge in this field, emerging through the clay work sculptures. The book works on a number of levels - providing insight into the body image issues women face that echo and enrich our understanding, and how these issues can be passed down through the mother-daughter relationship. Offering new knowledge and a transparent process of analysis, this book is important reading for practicing therapists and students alike and sows the seed for further research in this important field."

Michal Bat-Or, Art therapist, lecturer and researcher at University of Haifa, Israel

"This well-researched book draws on the most helpful and influential theories which have become integral to UK art therapy practice: embodiment of emotions, attachment theory and the impact of the socio-cultural context on mental health and in this case, body-image. It elegantly demonstrates how clay has specific attributes which support the exploration of these issues within art therapy. Above all, it is anchored in the authors' extensive clinical experience and the stunning visual imagery makes it a much welcome publication which will be of interest to arts therapists, service users and artists in health."

Val Huet, PhD, Director of Research & Development, British Association of Art Therapists

"Clay Work and Body Image in Art Therapy" is an insightful synthesis of women's authentic expressions of body image experience and representation, with extensive theoretical integration and analysis. Trisha Crocker and Susan Carr present, through the art-based vignettes and the authors' reflective writing, a lyrical and clinical account of new knowledge in this field, emerging through the clay work sculptures. The book works on a number of levels - providing insight into the body image issues women face that echo and enrich our understanding, and how these issues can be passed down through the mother-daughter relationship. Offering new knowledge and a transparent process of analysis, this book is important reading for practicing therapists and students alike and sows the seed for further research in this important field."

Michal Bat-Or, Art therapist, lecturer and researcher at University of Haifa, Israel.

"This well-researched book draws on the most helpful and influential theories which have become integral to UK art therapy practice: embodiment of emotions, attachment theory and the impact of the socio-cultural context on mental health and in this case, body-image. It elegantly demonstrates how clay has specific attributes which support the exploration of these issues within art therapy. Above all, it is anchored in the authors' extensive clinical experience and the stunning visual imagery makes it a much welcome publication which will be of interest to arts therapists, service users and artists in health."

Val Huet, PhD, director of Research & Development, British Association of Art Therapists.

From the Publisher