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Art Therapy
Journal of the American Art Therapy Association
ISSN: 0742-1656 (Print) 2159-9394 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uart20
Therapeutic Qualities of Clay-work in Art Therapy
and Psychotherapy: A Review
Michal Sholt MA & Tami Gavron MA
To cite this article: Michal Sholt MA & Tami Gavron MA (2006) Therapeutic Qualities of
Clay-work in Art Therapy and Psychotherapy: A Review, Art Therapy, 23:2, 66-72, DOI:
10.1080/07421656.2006.10129647
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/07421656.2006.10129647
Published online: 22 Apr 2011.
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Citing articles: 16 View citing articles
Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 23
(2) pp. 66-72 © AATA, Inc. 2006
66
Abstract
The aim of this article is to identify and define the diag-
nostic and therapeutic qualities of clay-work in contemporary
conceptualization (attachment theory, object relations, and
psychoanalytic theory). Three central features of clay-work are
highlighted: (1) procedural expression through touch, move-
ment, and the three-dimensional aspect; (2) the reflection of
construction and deconstruction processes; and (3) the regres-
sion process. The authors differentiate six therapeutic factors
that emerged from a review of the literature: facilitating
expression of emotions, catharsis, rich and deep expressions,
verbal communication, revealing unconscious material, and
concretization and symbolization. Short case examples of ther-
apeutic processes are described to illustrate these ideas.
Introduction
Clay is a familiar material in art therapy and in psy-
chotherapy. Many advocate the therapeutic potential of
clay as a tool for advancing therapeutic processes in indi-
vidual and group therapies (e.g. Anderson, 1995; Mattes &
Robbins, 1981). Others ascribe to clay-work diagnostic
qualities in family and individual therapies (e.g. Jorstad,
1965; Kwiatkowska, 1978; Keyes, 1984). However, an
integrative review regarding the therapeutic factors of clay-
work is missing. Additionally, a summary of conceptualiza-
tions regarding the use of clay in art therapy and psy-
chotherapy is needed, including delineation of its thera-
peutic qualities, and examination of its importance in
applied theory. The purpose of this study is to provide an
account of the theoretical relatedness of psychodynamic
and art therapy approaches in using clay processes to nur-
ture integration and healing for participants.
This article first will review historical and developmen-
tal issues of clay-work and clay products. A discussion of the
three fundamental features of clay-work (procedural expres-
sions, constructive and deconstructive processes, and the
regression process) will follow. Finally, the article will survey
the therapeutic factors of clay-work as they evolve through
our literature review.
By “clay-work” we mean the process of handling,
manipulating, and sculpting clay, and the products of these
activities. The importance of both product and process is
based on the conception that an art expression is not mere-
ly the final product but is also the process by which the
product has been developed, and that both product and
process foster significant psychological processes, revealing
meaningful information about the creators’ inner world
(Betensky, 1995; Elkisch, 1947; Wadeson, 1987). We brief-
ly describe the role clay played in ancient times, the sensual
qualities of clay-work that are exclusive to this material, and
some developmental issues arising from clay modeling.
Clay-work: Historical and
Developmental Issues
Clay products are well known in human history since
prehistoric times in such forms as vases, pots, and symbolic
figures, including human figures. According to Neumann
(1955) the first vessels in the ancient world were made out
of clay, which originated from earth. Humans attributed
significance to earth as the source of all things. The first
man in the Bible is called Adam, apparently derived from
the Hebrew word for earth, adama, the material from which
he was made.
In addition to its functional use for creating a variety
of containing tools, clay has been used throughout history
by many cultures as a vehicle to express a religious dimen-
sion in human life. Anthropologists speculate that symbol-
ic forms shaped in clay had magical and ritual meanings
(Raphael, 1947). Thus we find a link between symbolic
clay products and the mental-spiritual realm of humankind
early in human history. Accordingly, clay figures, which are
made of earth, may reflect the connection between the
human mental world and the material world. This connec-
tion is central in art therapy, an activity that uses art mate-
rials to represent the inner, spiritual world.
The development of art expression, mainly in the form
of drawings, has been the focus of many studies (e.g.
Kellogg, 1969; Machover, 1953). By contrast, little atten-
tion has been paid to developmental issues in working and
making images in clay (Golomb & McCormick, 1995;
Woltmann, 1993). This neglect may be due to technical
difficulties in conducting research with a plastic medium
that also becomes fragile when dry. Research on clay-work
requires much time and effort on the part of the researcher.
However, several important observations may be made
concerning this domain.
Therapeutic Qualities of Clay-work in Art Therapy and
Psychotherapy: A Review
Michal Sholt and Tami Gavron, Haifa, Israel
Editor’s note: Michal Sholt, MA, is a doctoral student in
education at the University of Haifa, Israel. He co-authored this
research with Tami Gavron, MA, a Registered Art Therapist in
private practice and lecturer at Haifa University. Correspondence
concerning this article may be addressed to msholtet@study.
haifa.ac.il or tamg@actcom.co.il.
67
SHOLT / GAVRON
For example, with regard to the development of three-
dimensional representation in clay, Woltmann (1993) in
his significant study describes in depth the roots of model-
ing in clay. He argues that they lie in the early years of
human development, when infants discover the plasticity
of their own feces. Woltmann also delineates the develop-
mental phases of mastering plastic materials, which he
terms “maturation cycles.” In this developmental process,
the child moves from unintentional activity with plastic
materials to representations of real objects with meanings
and emotional values attached to them.
A number of important studies on developmental
issues in clay-work were conducted by Golomb (1972,
1974) and by Golomb and McCormick (1995). These au-
thors tested two alternative hypotheses on the development
of three-dimensional representation in clay. The linear-
graphic hypothesis specifies a sequence parallel to that of
drawing, from one- to two- to three-dimensional represen-
tation (Arnheim, 1974; Brown, 1975), while the global-
modeling hypothesis predicts an early (albeit primitive)
three dimensional conception. Golomb and McCormick’s
study, which included 109 children (from four to 13 years
old) and 18 college students, confirmed the second hy-
pothesis. Specifically, they discovered that four-year-old
children already exhibited some basic three-dimensional
understanding and modeled primitive three-dimensional
figures. As children mature, their clay products gradually
become more refined and differentiated. But around the age
of eight to nine years the process of differentiation in mod-
eling generally levels off, and there is a tendency toward
two-dimensional representation in modeling. Golomb and
McCormick (1995) suggest that this seeming regression in
the capacity to represent may be related to children’s ambi-
tion to create figures with greater similarity to real-life mod-
els in their complexity, and that this ambition runs counter
to the need to balance the sculptures. Hence the children
resort to two-dimensional work.
In sum, the development of the ability for three-
dimensional representation in clay has not received enough
attention; more research is needed for a better understand-
ing of the phenomenon. As for use of clay in therapy, a
broader grasp is needed of the sculpting process and prod-
ucts. Such an understanding could promote an accurate
phenomenological observation of the dimensions of
process and product of clay-work in art therapy and psy-
chotherapy, and thus could assist in comprehending
patients’ non-verbal communication and development
through clay-work.
Fundamental Features of Clay-work and
Their Meanings in Psychotherapy
We chose to underscore three major therapeutic fea-
tures of clay-work in our literature review and in our clin-
ical experience as art therapists. Although these aspects are
interrelated and are often difficult to disentangle in a ther-
apeutic or diagnostic intervention, for clarity of description
we will address each of them separately. They are: (a) pro-
cedural expressions through the experience of touch, move-
ment, and the three-dimensional aspect of clay-work, (b)
construction and deconstruction processes through clay-
work, and (c) the regression process, which we divide into
three different types according to Knafo’s (2002) concepts.
Procedural Expressions through the Experience
of Touch, Movement, and the Three-Dimensional
Aspect of Clay-work.
Clay-work involves an intense and powerful tactile
experience of touching and haptic involvement. Touch was
identified as one of the first sensory responses to develop in
humans (Frank, 1957; Montagu, 1978). Tactile contact is
actually the first mode of communication that an infant
learns. For humans, the early stages of life are dominated by
oral and skin contact between infant and caregiver (Hunter
& Struve, 1998). Thus, clay-work involves a very primal
mode of expression and communication. Touch in clay-
work also requires body movements in endless opportuni-
ties for touching and modeling. Thus clay-work makes pos-
sible an entire non-verbal language or communication for
the creator, through which his or her mental realm, emo-
tional life, and primary object relations can be expressed.
We chose to use concepts from attachment and
object-relation theories to describe the inner processes
that are relevant to clay-work. The central assumption of
attachment theory is that humans form close emotional
bonds with significant others (Bowlby, 1969, 1973, 1979,
& 1980), which facilitate the development of mental rep-
resentations of self and other, or “internal working mod-
els” (Pietromonaco & Barrett, 2000). According to attach-
ment theory, there are two consecutive working models of
attachment: an unconscious, fairly primitive model that
a person develops during the early years of life, and later
a second model, which is more sophisticated, linguistic,
and conscious. The two models operate simultaneously
(Bowlby, 1979): mental representations regarding self and
others develop from procedural and sensorimotor repre-
sentations (Case, 1996; Crittenden, 1990) that have no
linguistic coding because they were developed in the pre-
verbal phase (Nelson, 1996). Our assumption is that non-
verbal modes of expression, including art, can function as
a way of communicating these procedural representations.
This is especially true with regard to clay-work, which
taps into primary modes of communication and expres-
sion (e.g. through touch), and is thereby linked to actual
past memories and feelings that were encoded through
touch and movement. In this respect, clay-work could
function as a central window to these unconscious, non-
verbal representations and may be especially helpful with
people who find it hard to express themselves verbally or
who are very defensive. The physical-sensual-mental
experience that clay facilitates can be understood by pro-
cedural expressions.
For example, a 14-year-old adolescent girl was referred
to art therapy treatment because of her difficulties in estab-
lishing peer relationships and because of angry outbursts
against her parents. In therapy she was guarded and distant.
In one session she touched the clay with closed eyes. She
manipulated the material for a longer time than usual,
immersed in her work with sensual touching. When she
opened her eyes, she looked at the emergent form and
described what she had created. She saw a mother and child;
the mother is crying, holding her little girl who wipes the
mother’s tears away. This incident opened the way for her to
tell her story of being a child of a depressed mother. The
unmediated contact with the clay helped her bring out hid-
den and primary themes which had a crucial impact on
understanding how she was held and her needs.
Clay and clay products are multi-dimensional objects
and as such can represent real-life objects very closely. In
addition to height, width and length, they also have the
qualities of weight, depth, and texture. Since through clay-
work one can make real-like things, clay sculptures can also
function as symbolic play objects, and thus afford a much
wider potential space for manifestations of fantasy and the
inner world, such as fears, anxieties, wishes, and so on. This
is true in psychotherapy with children as well as with
adults, when the clay product is treated as an object in the
therapeutic conversation or becomes part of a specific issue
in the therapist-client relationship (such as how carefully
the therapist held or protected the clay sculpture while the
client was absent or during a change of place).
The following is another example. A 16-year-old girl,
who was developmentally delayed and in the process of los-
ing her sight, had difficulty accepting her progressive blind-
ness and was referred to art therapy. When presented with
clay, she used it to make a girl with eyeglasses. At that point
in the therapy, she was in denial of the nonreversible aspect
of becoming blind. Her second sculpture was of a blind,
bespectacled girl. She worked for a long time on the second
sculpture, during which time she let herself express her feel-
ings of grief and loss of sight. She fashioned an environment
for the clay girl and taught her to read and write in Braille.
Presumably, the clay-work allowed her to form a tangible,
realistic figure, which became an object for projecting her
feelings and served as scaffolding for working through the
integration of her loss of sight into her self-image.
Another implication of the three-dimensional charac-
teristic of clay, mentioned above, is the kind of expression
that can be seen or felt through the multidimensional
aspect of a sculpture. As opposed to a painting, a clay prod-
uct can be looked at, touched and examined from different
sides and angles of the three dimensional form.
Some clients during therapy will sculpt forms with a
number of differentiated aspects. For example, an adoles-
cent boy sculpted clay creatures with two faces in each
side: one side of the figure bore an aggressive expression
with phallic organs, while the other side wore a sad expres-
sion with gentle facial features. Through looking at his
clay products, this young boy could discover his conflict-
ing feelings.
Similarly, many sculptures are made in therapy with
several distinct aspects created unconsciously that can be
explored later with the therapist. Examples are the inside of
the clay sculpture as opposed to its outside, a soft or
smooth texture as against rough texture, and the like. These
help to tell us the clients’ story.
The Reflection of Constructive and
Deconstructive Processes
Clay facilitates a meaningful experience of creating
something out of nothing, and transforming the product
into different forms. Simply by lightly touching the lump
of clay, the client leaves the imprint of his or her fingers on
it and thus becomes absorbed in his or her ability to trans-
form, in the impact of his or her existence and presence on
the here and now (Heimlich & Mark, 1990). These
imprints may be interpreted as his or her personal signs in
the real world. This experience is most evident in a client
who comes to therapy with feelings of loss and grief, and in
many cases with feelings such as helplessness. Heimlich &
Mark (1990) describes this phenomenon:
…a child may pick up a lump of clay and begin to roll or
squeeze it. The child responds tactilely to the texture, and
the moldable clay changes shape. The child can experience
immediately how the clay responds to his touch and feel-
ings. Through this type of movement experience, even a
timid child can quickly realize his own efficacy. (p. 42)
The opportunity to make a concrete thing out of the
piece of clay, which is a symbol and a metaphor of one’s
inner world, is immanent to the therapeutic process. It is
an alchemy-like process: transforming the pain into mean-
ingful expression.
The unformed chunk of clay and the new clay sculp-
ture itself can be manipulated and changed during the
therapeutic process. Furthermore, “clay has the capacity to
be done and undone multiple times, providing the oppor-
tunity to smash down or remake a clay-sculpture” (Rubin,
1984, p. 58). Clay-work enables the client to encounter the
constructive and destructive aspects of the self, in process-
es of psychic change and identity formation, or in becom-
ing himself/herself.
Change can occur with the making of one sculpture or
a series. The latter is the case with many adolescents who
may, in their treatment, seek their identity through series of
self-portraits in clay. The self-portrait often develops grad-
ually from a blank facial expression into a more expressive
one, and one can detect development and change from one
sculpture to the next.
A clinical example of meaningful change in the prod-
uct may illustrate this point. A client in her forties came
to art therapy because of her enraged outbursts against her
children and her profound doubts about her professional
identity. She had lost her mother when she was 16 and
was dealing with her unresolved grief. From the clay, she
made a mother’s hand holding a baby’s head, saying she
wished to capture the tenderness in the mother’s holding.
After examining her sculpture, she suddenly said that the
mother’s hand looked aggressive to her and therefore
frightening. She could not keep the product as it appeared
to her: a mother (aggressive) and a baby (helpless). She
turned the sculpture upside down so that the baby’s head
was under the palm. It turned into “an artist’s hand work-
ing with clay,” which symbolized her wish to become an
independent artist. The way her clay sculpture developed
68 THERAPEUTIC QUALITIES OF CLAY-WORK IN ART THERAPY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY: A REVIEW
69
SHOLT / GAVRON
into its final image revealed to her the emotional roots of
her art work and some significant contents of her mind: a
child who was raised in an aggressive environment; a
mother who finds it hard to control her anger; and an
extremely sensitive artist. Additionally, it revealed her
inner dialogue between the constructive and deconstruc-
tive aspects of herself.
The connection between loss and clay-work is pre-
sented in many studies; Henley (2002), for example,
investigates the subject of “clay and object loss” in his text.
People who are in mourning and suffering loss can use
clay-work to express agony, anger, and frustration acted
out on the lump of clay. Clay also can be utilized for re-
creating the image of what or who was lost. The inner
image of the lost person may be brought to life, and the
client can face his or her deep feelings and fantasies. The
sense of creating a new image of the lost object is power-
ful and has a healing effect as it facilitates coping with
deep pain. For example, a 14-year-old girl, who lost her
mother to illness, could hardly talk about her deep grief. A
few months later she made a large clay cup, which she
loved to hold. As she finished sculpting the cup, she
engraved on it the word “mother.” This freed her to talk
about her longing for her mother’s touch.
Another example is a seven-year-old boy who was
abandoned by his father and was moved to a foster home
because of his mother’s illness. In art therapy, he fashioned
two large male heads out of clay. One represented his bio-
logical father, the other his foster father. The boy liked to
talk to them and made them talk to each other. The dia-
logue between the “two fathers” enabled him to integrate
the newly established bond with his foster father and
acceptance of his rejection by his biological father. In this
process, he could recreate an inner image of his biological
father and his internalized relationship with him.
In the two therapeutic processes outlined above, clay-
work allowed the clients to bring to life representations of
the internalized lost objects, and to work through their loss.
The Regression Process
Because of the sensual and primary qualities of clay,
which involve the client in procedural communication,
clay-work allows and even invites regression processes that
are crucial in therapy. We used Knafo’s (2002) definitions
of three types of regression to illuminate the part clay plays
in different regression processes. Knafo investigates the art-
making process from a psychoanalytic perspective.
1. Temporal regression, or return to earlier stages of psy-
chosexual development. Kramer (1971) described chil-
dren’s and adults’ perception of clay as a toy. They use clay
playfully, reenacting their oral, anal, and phallic fantasies
through it (Schlossberg, 1983). In art therapy, we often see
children using clay to represent food and engaging in sym-
bolic acts of nourishment. Some children express anal as-
pects in clay when they treat it as feces, or when issues of
smearing and collecting are brought out. Sexual play with
clay also is common with children and adolescents as a pro-
jection of fantasies and fears.
2. Regression as risking decompensation such as “play-
ing with boundaries of self, identity and reality” (Knafo,
2002, p. 25). In therapy, clients often construct images
that stand for their selves symbolically. These images rep-
resent unconscious parts of themselves that could be
frightening outside the therapeutic environment. Clay-
work offers the opportunity to represent images that are
distorted, intimidating, or ugly. These images can repre-
sent different parts of the self or the way clients perceive
themselves as whole persons.
For example, a 13-year-old orphan came to art thera-
py because of adjustment problems and conduct disorder.
She would draw caricatures of female figures with the same
stereotypical facial expressions that appear on a fashionable
teenager. When she was asked to manipulate clay with her
eyes closed, she sculpted a figure of a man with a sad face
“coming out from a swamp.” She said he was rejected by
everyone because of his bad odor. Through clay, she
expressed an authentic aspect of herself from her past and
her present, namely her rejected aspects that are primary
and painful. These aspects were inaccessible to her before
therapy as they were hidden beneath the stereotypical mask
she used.
The shelves of many art therapy clinics often are
thronged with clay monsters. As art therapists, we fre-
quently witness clients turning clay chunks into monstrous
creatures and aggressive figures. For example, a 13-year-old
boy who was referred to art therapy because of angry out-
bursts against his environment, used clay to create such
aggressive monsters. He gave them names and made up
stories about them in which he identified with them.
Through the therapeutic process, the boy was able to dis-
cover other aspects in his creatures such as sadness and
loneliness. He could then make the connection between his
aggressive tendencies and the reasons for his being so angry.
3. Topographical and structural regression, such as freer
access to visual and primary modes of thought. This type
of regression can be explained by the process of procedural
expression and also by the conceptualization of object rela-
tions theory. According to Ogden (1989), the primitive
edge of the human experience is described in the autistic-
contiguous experience, which is dominated by sensations,
mainly touch and rhythmic experiences. Clay engages us in
those aspects and thus can echo our primitive modes of
existence and communication.
Observation of different types of regressive expressions
by clients enables us to enlarge our understanding of their
inner world and their needs.
A Review of the Therapeutic Factors of
Clay-work in Psychotherapy
From our review of 35 clinical reports (marked with an
asterisk in the reference list), we identified six major thera-
peutic factors that emerged through the use of clay-work in
art therapy and in psychotherapy. In actual therapy, these
phenomena overlap considerably, so our division is for the
purpose of clarity of presentation.
1. Facilitating expression of emotions
Clay-work is described as facilitating and enabling the
expression of feelings fairly quickly, due to the tactile qual-
ity of the clay (Bratton & Ferebee, 1999; Wadeson, 1987),
which enables haptic involvement (Kagin & Lusebrink,
1971) and rhythmical movements that accompany clay-
work. There are many descriptions in the literature describ-
ing clay figures as representing powerful emotions that pre-
viously were inaccessible to the client (Brock, 1991;
Henley, 2002; Keyes, 1984; Mattes & Robbins, 1981;
Mciver, 2001; Mitchell, 1984).
For example, the many opportunities of modeling in
clay furnish countless ways in which anger can be expressed
or ventilated, such as scratching, clasping, stabbing, throw-
ing, smashing, and so on. As mentioned above, these emo-
tional expressions are made through the most primal and
procedural mode of communication, through tactile con-
tact and on a somatic level. Hence there is a greater likeli-
hood that they will be authentic with regard to affects
(Horovitz-Darby, 1992). Furthermore, because clay as a
material resists some of these manipulations and is not eas-
ily breakable or ruined or destroyed in its plastic state
(unlike painting), the client can engage in these aggressive
actions without fear of negative outcomes to the material.
2. Facilitating catharsis
Jorstad (1965) and Anderson (1995) describe a cathar-
tic effect of clay-work in psychotherapy. Both authors men-
tion client intensity of emotional engagement while work-
ing with clay. Jorstad (1965) suggests that the cathartic
effect is due to the fact that working with such a primitive
and original material as clay satisfies previously frustrated
needs, and that it can give vent to anal tendencies for some
clients. Anderson (1995) contends that because of the tac-
tile qualities and fluidity of the clay, and because it has the
potential to resemble the real object it is meant to represent
by its three-dimensionality, it will inevitably evoke an affec-
tive response, such as memories, thoughts, and fantasies.
Henley (2002) demonstrates how regression that occurs
through clay-work facilitates cathartic release.
3. Revealing unconscious materials
One aspect of the cathartic effect is to bring repressed
ideas, feelings, wishes, and memories of the past into con-
sciousness. But clay-work can also uncover unconscious
aspects without a cathartic effect through the procedural
expression itself (Rubin, 1984; Woltmann, 1993).
Anderson (1995), for instance, claims that clay-work can
yield some products that are not monitored by the client’s
intellect and that clay-work can evoke direct expression
that is not filtered through the client’s mind. An example
is what can be detected through physical manipulation
(Henley, 2002) when clients touch and mold the clay. In
such cases, therapeutic conversation with the client after
his or her creative work can disclose the unconscious lay-
ers embedded in his or her visible product (Betensky
1995; Kwiatkowska, 1978).
4. Facilitating rich and deep expressions
Many reports describe clay-work as communicating to
the therapist additional layers of expression (Elkisch, 1947;
Jacobi, 1955; Kameguchi & Murphy-Shigematsu, 2001).
Mattes and Robbins (1981) write: “…the image opens up
possibilities for exploration and discovery in contrast to
more conventional verbal communication which tends to
reduce the field” (pp. 386-387).
In a qualitative study of the special contribution of
clay-work compared with verbal communication of adoles-
cents, Graziano (1999) found that the symbolic clay
objects expressed deeper levels of subjective meanings.
They were tied to developmental issues and concerns of the
adolescents: “The clay symbols made were expressive of
deeper felt meaning about: possession, mystery, entrap-
ment, perfection, vengeance, and foolishness” (p. 5).
5. Facilitating verbal communication
Jorstad (1965) reported that when patients brought
their clay products to their therapeutic sessions, the pres-
ence of these symbolic figures often facilitated the patients’
verbal associations: “Thus verbal communication often
became easier and the patients’ possibility of emotional
experience and insight increased in the therapy-situation”
(p. 494). The phenomenon of facilitating verbal communi-
cation is demonstrated in clinical examples by several
authors (Heimlich & Mark, 1990; Kwiatkowska, 1978;
Oaklander, 1978; Raginky, 1962; Rubin, 1984).
6. Concretization and symbolization:
The embodiment of inner representations in
visual images
Many have described the phenomenon of concretiza-
tion, noted in psychoanalytic studies and in clay-work in
individual psychotherapy (Brown, 1975; Denny & Fagen,
1970; Mattes & Robbins, 1981; Simon, 1996) and also in
group therapy (Winship & Haigh, 1998). Concretization
refers to the process in which thoughts, feelings, fantasies,
and conflicts are embodied in concrete objects, and also in
the process of sculpting and through observing the product
because of its facilitating symbolization. For example,
Macks (1990) describes this phenomenon in art therapy
with clients suffering from eating disorders, noting that
many such clients created square and angular containers
rather than rounded containers. Macks interprets this phe-
nomenon as a concretization of the denial of the feminine.
Another expression of concretization was recounted by
Brown (1975) who suggests that clay-work might depict
some aspects of the therapeutic relationship between client
and therapist. This effect makes clay-work a useful diagnos-
tic and therapeutic tool especially in family therapy, due to
its potential to illustrate many family concepts (e.g., prox-
imity and distance) through plastic representations
(Kameguchi & Murphy-Shigematsu, 2001; Kwiatkowska,
1978; Vandvick & Eckblad, 1993; Ventre & Keller, 1986).
70 THERAPEUTIC QUALITIES OF CLAY-WORK IN ART THERAPY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY: A REVIEW
71
SHOLT / GAVRON
Summary
We set out to identify and define the therapeutic impli-
cations of clay-work, using contemporary conceptualiza-
tions for this purpose. We drew our explanations from vari-
ous studies on the theory and practice of art therapy, attach-
ment theory, object relations, and psychoanalytic theory.
Clay-work combines primitive modes of communica-
tion through the elementary substance of clay, its primal
usage in our human history, and echoes of our experience
of the early stages in life.
Clay-work involves body expression through the phys-
ical work with clay, and mental processes through the act
of modeling and through observing the product. Thus it
allows integration of emotions, memories, and fantasies
from different levels of consciousness. The potential inten-
sity of clay-work in bringing up unconscious material, and
amplifying the personal meaning of a symbol (Kagin &
Lusebrink, 1978) indicates the hazards that lie in prema-
ture disclosure, especially in treatment of traumatic issues.
Caution must be applied in the use of clay-work in art
therapy and in psychotherapy.
We have highlighted here some central features of clay-
work in the therapeutic process, namely the procedural
expression which can enable access to non-verbal represen-
tations of self, other, and the relationships between self and
other: The reflection of constructive and deconstructive
aspects that enable clients to explore their transforming
abilities, as in process of identity development, and in
themes of loss and bereavement; and finally, the regression
process, according to Knafo’s (2002) definition. These fun-
damental features of clay-work contribute to a significant
exploration of self by clients and therapists that enable the
detection and integration of primal experiences of the self,
and its multifaceted nature. It is by which clients widen
their access to their inner selves and thus continue their
journey of becoming.
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