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

“Art Therapy and Childbearing Issues: Birth, Death and Rebirth” is an indispensable resource for art therapists, mental health clinicians and lay readers who have an interest in women’s maternal experience as it relates to a variety of childrearing issue. Swan-Foster, editor, draws together a remarkable and well-rounded breadth of topics successfully addressing feminine transformation via the maternal experience as well as issues regarding social injustices, reproductive rights and marginalization of pregnant women. I found the chapters in the sections regarding Postpartum and Grief and Loss particularly poignant, clinically astute and readily applicable to the current psychotherapeutic process with clients experiencing issues regarding loss due to miscarriage, maternal identity, and infertility. This compilation of essays is a bounty of creative clinical writing and a wealth of knowledge and should be read by anyone attending to this crucial phase of a woman’s life.

My excitement in reading this book is several-fold. First, in the wide-ranging topics it covers within the domain of pregnancy and birthing issues; Swan-Foster has done an excellent job of gathering topics that ask to be addressed in our complex world. Beyond that, the authors, experts in their fields, show clearly how to use art therapy as a healing medium for women and couples struggling with complex issues, many of which are rarely written about, such as perinatal palliative care. It is truly a rich volume I will refer to again and again. Anyone working with mothering issues will find it a gem.