ABSTRACT
When a mother holds her child, she too is a part of the experience. Research into maternal experiencing has generally focused on the impact of mothering styles, conceptualisations and behaviours for children. Maternal experiences like holding, a frequent, long term and significant behaviour, tend to be side-lined or examined through established theoretical lens. Yet, my personal experiences of holding my son were deeply meaningful and at times changed our assumed duality. These intense moments of holding marked the beginning of long term personal and academic curiosity. In the inquiry this book is based on, three participants and I co-explored mother’s experiences of holding our children using an arts-based collaborative approach. Three core findings were generated: holding was experienced as purposeful; it offered a space for the co-construction and evolution of significant relational stories and during moments of optimal holding, mothers experienced a cherished expansion of self into the mother/child ‘us’. These findings have implications for therapeutic work with a focus on the intersubjective or fundamentally relational nature of maternal holding. Personal and participant stories of holding are woven throughout to evoke resonance and provoke the question – how might we explore and attend to holding for the benefit of the mother/child relationship?
