Current bereavement theory: Implications for art therapy practice

In a recent survey of art therapists affiliated with the American Art Therapy Association (American Art Therapy Association, I. (2007). Newsletter, XL. American Art Therapy Association, INC., pp. 23), bereavement/grief was listed as one of the top 10 specialties of practicing art therapists. Despite the apparent popularity of this kind of work, publications suggest that stage-based approaches to grief still seem to be the norm (Finn, C. A. (2003). Helping students cope with loss: incorporating art into group counselling. The Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 28, 155–165; Hiltunen, S. M. S. (2003). Bereavement, lamenting and the prism of consciousness: Some practical considerations. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 30, 217–228) regardless of the recent theoretical and empirical advances in bereavement. Instead of seeing the natural process of grief as something that must be experienced in stages, the more recent theories (Neimeyer, R. A. (1998). Lessons of loss: A guide to coping. NY: McGraw-Hill; Stroebe, M. S., & Schut, H. (1999). The dual process of model of coping with bereavement: Rationale and description. Death Studies, 23(3), 197–224) focus on finding meaning in the aftermath of loss and describe the process in a more complex way. These approaches fit well with the art therapist's orientation towards externalizing, facilitating insight and understanding in the client. The article describes these newer approaches to bereavement and provides clinical and theoretical implications for art therapists working in grief/bereavement.