Grief and the Expressive Arts: Practices for Creating Meaning

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.

Barbara E. Thompson, OTD, LCSW, OTR/L, is a professor in the department of occupational therapy at the Sage Colleges, where she also maintains a private psychotherapy practice. She founded and directed the St. Peter’s Hospice Day Program and the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Regional Center at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany, NY, before joining academia full time and obtaining a certificate in advanced graduate studies in the expressive arts through the European Graduate School.

Robert A. Neimeyer, PhD, is a professor in the department of psychology at the University of Memphis, where he also maintains an active clinical practice. He has published more than two dozen books, is the editor of Death Studies, and has served as president of the Association for Death Education and Counseling as well as chair of the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement. A published poet, Neimeyer’s most recent book of verse is titled The Art of Longing.