Clay Work and Body Image in Art Therapy

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.

"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.

• List of Figures; Acknowledgements; Section One: Preparing the Ground - Digging for Clay; Chapter 1. Introduction & Context: Body Image, Art Therapy & Clay Work; Chapter 2. The Distorted Mirror: Body Image, The Critical Mother & Shame; Chapter 3. Making Connections: Metaphor, Evolution & Neuroscience; Section Two: Vignettes & Case Studies – Shaping the Self; Chapter 4: Case Vignettes – Study One, Sessions One, Two, Three & Four; Chapter 5: Case Studies, Study Two: Metaphor, Symbolism & Body Image; Chapter 6: Case Studies, Study Two: Mother’s and Other’s Influence on Body Image; Chapter 7: Case Studies, Study Two: Clay Work as Meaningful Play; Section Three: Protocol, Evaluation Methods & Conclusions – Opening the Kiln; Chapter 8. Intervention Protocol; Chapter 9. Methods of Analysis; Chapter 10. Adding the Glaze: Finding Meaning and Healing through Metaphor & Symbolism; Bibliography, Index.