Art and other expressive therapies are increasingly used in grief counseling, not only among children and adolescents, but throughout the developmental spectrum. Creative activities are commonly used in group and individual psychotherapy programs, but it is only relatively recently that these expressive modalities have been employed within the context of clinical grief work in structured settings. These forms of nonverbal communication are often more natural ways to express thoughts and feelings that are difficult to discuss, particularly when it comes to issues surrounding grief and loss. Packed with pictures and instructional detail, this book includes an eight-session curriculum for use with grief support groups as well as alternative modalities of grief art therapy.

A timely and urgent exploration into the ways artists have grappled with race and grief in modern America, conceived by the great curator Okwui Enwezor Featuring works by more than 30 artists and writings by leading scholars and art historians, this book - and its accompanying exhibition, both conceived by the late, legendary curator Okwui Enwezor - gives voice to artists addressing concepts of mourning, commemoration, and loss and considers their engagement with the social movements, from Civil Rights to Black Lives Matter, that black grief has galvanized. Artists included: Terry Adkins, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kevin Beasley, Dawoud Bey, Mark Bradford, Garrett Bradley, Melvin Edwards, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Charles Gaines, Theaster Gates, Ellen Gallagher, Arthur Jafa, Daniel LaRue Johnson, Rashid Johnson, Jennie C. Jones, Kahlil Joseph, Deana Lawson, Simone Leigh, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Julie Mehretu, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Okwui Okpokwasili, Adam Pendleton, Julia Phillips, Howardena Pindell, Cameron Rowland, Lorna Simpson, Sable Elyse Smith, Tyshawn Sorey, Diamond Stingily, Henry Taylor, Hank Willis Thomas, Kara Walker, Nari Ward, Carrie Mae Weems, and Jack Whitten. Essays by Elizabeth Alexander, Naomi Beckwith, Judith Butler, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Massimiliano Gioni, Saidiya Hartman, Juliet Hooker, Glenn Ligon, Mark Nash, Claudia Rankine, and Christina Sharpe.

The Art of Living with Grief is a short and bitterly sweet compilation of advice, observations and wisdom for parents and those around them who are suffering with the loss of a child. It brings a sense of peace and comfort to those suffering from the most unnatural of all losses.The author takes the reader on a poetic and beautifully illustrated journey through the pain, anger, emptiness and loss she experienced, then gently encourages readers to grow stronger so they can endure a pain that will never leave them.

“Kevin Young has thoughtfully gathered many of these sorrowful perambulations and grievous plummets.” -Billy Collins The Art of Losing is the first anthology of its kind, delivering poetry with a purpose. Editor Kevin Young has introduced and selected 150 devastatingly beautiful poems that embrace the pain and heartbreak of mourning. Divided into five sections (Reckoning, Remembrance, Rituals, Recovery, and Redemption), with poems by some of our most beloved poets as well as the best of the current generation of poets, The Art of Losing is the ideal gift for a loved one in a time of need and for use by therapists, ministers, rabbis, and palliative care workers who tend to those who are experiencing loss. Among the poets included: Elizabeth Alexander, W. H. Auden, Amy Clampitt, Billy Collins, Emily Dickinson, Louise Gluck, Ted Hughes, Galway Kinnell, Kenneth Koch, Philip Larkin, Li-Young Lee, Philip Levine, Marianne Moore, Sharon Olds, Mary Oliver, Robert Pinsky, Adrienne Rich, Theodore Roethke, Anne Sexton, Wallace Stevens, Dylan Thomas, Derek Walcott, and James Wright.

Illuminates the many facets that link grief, counseling, and creativity. This book suggests multiple strategies that will help practitioners enlarge their repertoire of hands-on skills and foster introspection and empathy in reader.

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.

This wide-ranging book on art therapy and grief provides everything an art therapist needs to feel confident in creating an effective treatment plan. It features fourteen clear-cut protocols, outlining 4-8 week curriculums for working with Complicated Grief, and explains the theory which informs the practice, including popular and evolving models such as Attachment Theory, Mindfulness, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Art Therapy Relational Neuroscience (ATR-N). Suitable for a variety of settings and clinical populations, the book breaks through the analytical jargon of the field and provides first-person narratives of art therapists exploring their own experiences of grief and client case studies.