Routledge Art Therapy and Childbearing Issues: Birth, Death, and Rebirth

This text introduces readers to the diverse and unique ways art therapy is used with women who are undergoing various stages of the childbearing process, including conception, pregnancy, miscarriage, childbirth, and postpartum. Art Therapy and Childbearing Issues discusses a range of topics including the role of transference/countertransference, attachment and maternal tasks, and neuropsychology. The book also addresses several motifs that are outside cultural norms of pregnancy and childbearing, such as racial sociopolitical issues, grief and loss, palliative care, midwifery, menstruation, sex-trafficking, disadvantaged populations, and incarceration. Each chapter offers research, modalities, case studies and suggestions on how to work in this field in a new way, accompanied by visual representations of different therapy methods and practices. The approachable style will appeal to a range of readers who will come away with a new awareness of art therapy and a greater knowledge of how to work with women as they enter and exit this universal, psychobiological experience. Review Judith Rubin As a woman who experienced trauma in childbirth when medicine was blind to its impact, I welcome this book. As a mother whose daughter’s survival was precarious during pregnancy, I welcome this book. As an art therapist who has treated many women becoming parents, I thank Nora Swan-Foster for editing it. Judith A. Rubin, PhD, ATR-BC, HLM, president, Expressive Media; Author, Introduction to Art Therapy; The Art of Art Therapy Selena Shelley: Picture a web, woven together by the intricacies of childbirth. That is what you will find in this anthology… a unique collection of knowledge, insight, and the reality of childbirth in present-day America. Without question, Swan-Foster has managed the extraordinary – bringing together critical information and perspectives for every art therapist, therapist, feminist, and/or practitioner who wants to better understand both the beauty and struggle of the perinatal period. Selena Shelley, MA, LMHC – Psychotherapist, When Survivors Give Birth Trainer, & adjunct faculty in the Department of Midwifery at Bastyr University Michelle Dean Art therapy and childbearing issues elegantly restores the childbirth process from one of a medically oriented procedure to its rightful place as a vital cosmic and archetypal experience – a profound threshold for the child and parents. The authors thoughtfully contribute their diverse perspectives, which bring forth a wealth of knowledge for the reader. Swan-Foster’s text masterfully infuses the richness of participation in a primordial experience with contemporaneous relevance, a text sure to appeal to art therapists, students, and other mental health clinicians interested in the intersection of imagery and the emergent process of art and life. Michelle L. Dean, MA, ATR-BC, LPC, CGP, Art Therapy Program director at Cedar Crest College, co-founder & director of The Center for Psyche & the Arts, LLC, and author of Using Art Media in Psychotherapy. Gayle Peterson: Swan-Foster is an organizing voice in the wilderness of women’s political and psychic needs. These authors not only know the experience of art and its transformative value, but also bring this knowledge to women’s growth and development at the crux of the childbearing and mothering experience. Art Therapy and Childbearing Issues is a must read for anyone working in the field, and an inspiring read to the lay person as well. Gayle Peterson, LCSW, PhD is author of Birthing Normally, An Easier Childbirth and Making Healthy Families. Gayle directs the training certification program "Peterson Childbirth Method" and has a private practice in Berkeley, CA. Sondra Geller Art Therapy and Childbearing Issues is a comprehensive collection of writings by outstanding scholars in the field. This timely book is superbly edited by Swan-Foster, a Jungian Analyst, Art Therapist