ABSTRACT
Jung’s theory of the Wounded Healer conceives of the therapeutic space as a sealed container which potentiates the transformative exchange between client and therapist. Within this liminal space, activation of the therapist’s wounds in turn activates the client’s inner healer. In art psychotherapy, powerful images created with the therapist watching reflect the intense psychological engagement of the artist-client in the unconscious imaginal realm. Images are often presences that have continuing impact on the creator and the viewer. This is particularly powerful in bereavement work. In this chapter, I will explore my work with two youths who were losing their fathers. Both of these clients entreated me to do artwork with them and to not ask them to do anything I was not also willing to do. In creating alongside them, not only was personal loss reactivated but the transformative knowledge from loss, the ability to stay emotionally and psychically present with pain, and the willingness to receive and reflect experience also were rekindled.
