ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to take the reader on a journey through the life cycle of the Onyx art therapy group; from its conception and birth, through adolescence and mid-life and on to the group’s “twilight years” and eventual death. Using vignettes from various points in the group’s life cycle, it seeks to reflect the experiences of some of the women who participated in the art therapy group and to describe processes at work from the therapists’ perspectives. Onyx was established to offer group therapeutic provision to women prisoners at HMP Holloway who held the status of “foreign nationals”. An art therapy group for “foreign nationals” at Holloway provided a means of working with a complex, multi-layered group within the prison. The therapists too had to accept the ending of the group into which they had put so much time and focus. Looking back, both therapists found that the group’s maturation mirrored something of their distinct individual journeys.
