Little research has explored the everyday, simple and long-term experience of maternal holding, particularly after the first year of a child’s life. The research that has been undertaken commonly examines holding through the lens of attachment with a focus on the impact of holding upon the child. Employing an arts-based collaborative inquiry approach, participants’ stories of holding, as well as the author’s own, convey the significant maternal experiences of holding their children over individual arts therapeutic sessions.
Key Features
- Intersubjective qualities: Draws attention to the intersubjective qualities of the mother/child relationship.
- Importance of holding: Explores why holding matters.
- Therapeutic suggestions: Offers suggestions for therapeutic practice.
- Essential reading: Ideal for therapeutic practitioners and those in allied health fields who work with mothers and children.
Additional Information
Optimal moments of holding included strange, powerful and meaningful experiences of expansion into self-in-relationship. Attention is drawn to the ways in which holding can alert us to the current state of mother/child relationships; how we understand, story and structure those relationships; and the ways in which we can attend to holding in order to develop deeply satisfying experiences of a mother/child ‘us’.
