Ceramics in therapy - Can it be a better way to selfcontrol and selfawareness than other artforms?

To Karen Magnant! It was nice to see your reply to my question! My first question was perhaps not so specific, but I will try to make it more detailed in hope of getting answers and thoughts from others. I have experienced that psychiatric patients, in hospital, who have struggled with anger, frustrations, anxiety, have managed to ease their pain through ceramics in a way that other kinds of artwork couldn`t do: First: the process of making the material soft - from "battering" it down on the table to make the clay ready to sculpturing. It seems that this process make "bad feelings" "disappear into the clay". Second: the process of sculpturing. Anger and frustrations seems to be so eased that the interest of creating an object from the clay is the only thing that matters and not the patients troubled lifes. I haven`t seen such results from other kind of artactivity/therapy and this has made me qurious. I would be grateful for thoughts, experience, suggestions of litterature.

Replies:

Ceramics and art therapy, by Sophia Kelly, 5/29/98 Playdoh as an alternative to clay, by Jerry Stochansky, 6/28/98 Anger in youth , by , Anger in youth , by , Anger in youth , by Karen Vince, 10/1/98 Consultation with a local art therapist might be necessary., by Sophia Kelly, 10/5/98 Untitled, by wzj, 10/6/98

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