Artful Grieving - by Alicia Seymour (Paperback)

About the Book

"Inspire creative healing through 50 art therapy directives which work alongside established grief therapy models, helping you provide practical, flexible support for your clients through their journey with loss. Each directive is intertwined with Worden's tasks of mourning to provide a structured, empirically-supported framework for counseling"--

Book Synopsis

Grief is so often a strange, wordless thing that refuses to be categorised or explained. Through art therapy, people struggling with loss can find ways to explore their feelings freely, and express the parts of their grief that are hard to put into words.

Based on empirically supported, award-winning research, a renowned grief model and proven clinical experiences, Artful Grieving provides a collection of 50 grief-specific art therapy directives to address the wide range of potential emotional responses and life adjustments for the grieving client. The topics draw from a range of theoretical and philosophical perspectives to facilitate the grieving processes necessary to prevent complicated grief.

This is not a how-to manual. Designed to facilitate Worden's four tasks of mourning, it is an adaptable and accessible framework to inspire and encourage clinical intuition through art-based prompts that guide conversation and goal setting. An essential, critical, and effective guide for the well-being of those experiencing profound loss and grief.

Review Quotes

Artful Grieving offers a compassionate approach to navigating loss. The art therapy directives inspire a fresh insight into processing grief; addressing everything from reframing nightmares to confronting mortality and exploring unspoken words. The consistent and comprehensive activities make conversations around grief approachable and empowering. Importantly, Alicia Seymour shares ways of supporting the bereaved without imposing expectations, allowing clients to express whatever they feel in their own way.--Pamela Hayes Malkoff, LMFT, ATR-BC, author of The Creative Cognitive Therapy Method

The author's integration of Worden's grief model with artistic creation in the context of art therapy forms a powerful and resonant connection, as both embody an active agency in the grieving individual. Thus, the synergy between these fields facilitates a profound journey of processing grief. The detailed introduction on grief processes, expanding the scope for the reader and making significant therapeutic knowledge more accessible. The directives are accompanied by the author's own artworks, adding another layer of inspiration and hinting at the soul's depth in its journey through grief processing. The range of directives itself serves as a testament to the diverse landscapes of the grieving soul, as well as the opportunity to grow from it into creative living.--Michal Bat Or, PhD. Art therapist, the School of Creative Arts Therapies at the University of Haifa

Alicia Seymour writes passionately and shares honestly, addressing a known deficit in art therapy approaches to working with grief. She sensitively addresses grief as an unpredictable but normative response to loss, in the wake of death and also from other life experiences. This book helps make art-making an accessible tool for clinicians helping grieving clients heal.--Dr. Rachel Brandoff, Ph.D, ATR-BC, ATCS LCAT (NY), LPAT (NJ)

Artful Grieving-- written from the heart and the mind-- expands and elevates how art therapists can view and approach loss and grief through these inspiring, innovative, and beautifully illustrated exercises.--David E. Gussak, PhD, ATR-BC, HLM--Florida State University, Professor of Art Therapy

This essential resource is a must read for all clinicians. Artful Grieving provides an innovative and creative framework to facilitate conversations around and promote healing from grief and loss.--Carolyn Brown Treadon, PhD, ATR-BC, ATCS, Graduate Program Coordinator, PennWest University

About the Author

Alicia Seymour holds master's degrees in both Art Therapy and Clinical Counseling from Pennsylvania Western University, Edinboro. In her counseling work, she specializes in grief from an existential, humanistic, and spiritual perspective. She has previous experience working in hospice with both patients and families, and as a court-ordered family therapist and primary counselor working with adolescents in a partial inpatient setting. She can be found at www.artfulgrieving.com and on Instagram as @artfulgrieving.