ABSTRACT
I am invited to experience dreamscaping and to explore its clinical application in art therapy for bereaved clients. As I travel to New York to meet with Nancy Gershman, I am reminded of how important it is for clinicians to keep healing themselves, “and to stay immersed in the medicines we want to bring to others” (McNiff, 2004, p. 12). It is not lost on me that almost 16 years ago I had taken a similar train to New York’s West Side to identify the body of my 17-year old daughter, Kristin. She had taken her own life on October 11, 2001, falling 15 stories from the roof of her college dorm. That single violent moment changed my life and set me on a healing path that included years of meditation and self-exploration through a creative collage practice. Immersion in those two processes ultimately served as the foundation for my book Artful Grief: A Diary of Healing and became a template for my work in the field of grief and bereavement.
