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November 14, 2009

Workshop shows how the arts can help people cope with loss of a loved one

By Brian M. Boyce

TERRE HAUTE — Cathie Laska told the group how her daughter’s death in 2006 threw her into a state of shock.

“And that loss continues with my family to this day,” she said.

About a dozen participants and facilitators gathered in the Unitarian Universalist Congregation on Saturday afternoon as the third annual Creating a Path Through Loss workshop was hosted there, focusing on the arts as healing tools.

Laska said when her daughter died, she reached back to memories of her late mother. Her mother, like her daughter and herself, was an artist. Encouraged by others, she began to work through the grief with her hands and imagination, using art as a means of therapy.

Meanwhile, Zann Carter lost a son in 2006. The longtime poet and writer also began working through the emotions of grief with the artistic process. And it worked in such a manner she wanted to share it with others.

“This workshop came out of two families’ losses,” Carter explained Saturday afternoon.

The group hosted their first workshop in 2007, growing it each year as they share tools and process in the multi-disciplinary coursework of counseling, psychology and art therapy.

Kathy Gotshall, director of the M.A. in art therapy program at St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, said she embraces her role as a facilitator in the program.

“It’s an honor and privilege to be able to provide a resource for people who are grieving here in the Wabash Valley,” she said, noting how vulnerable people are when going through a loss.

But loss itself is universal for all humans, Rev. Amy Kindred said. The congregation’s minister also participated in the workshop, adding she too has a background in art as therapy.

“There aren’t offerings in other cities like this,” Kindred said. However, they are “desperately needed” considering most people try to handle the emotions of loss by themselves. Participation in group workshops helps people understand that all humans have suffered similar problems.

Carter noted the function of loss is not limited to the death of a loved one. Whether flooded out of one’s home and into a shelter, unemployed or suffering from the ongoing economic woes, embracing constructive means of dealing with those topics leads people away from destructive alternatives, she said.

Laska told the group her family recently suffered another loss in the death of her father-in-law. The ongoing cycle of love and loss is continual, and Laska encouraged participants to let go their concerns about the artistic product and focus on the process instead. Many of those in attendance hadn’t picked up a crayon since childhood.

Still, she encouraged them to “use your hands and your heart,” to make art, which is free, fun and good for the soul.



Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.



More info

• For more information on grief counseling or art therapy, call The Maple Center at (812) 234-8733 or Kathy Gotshall, (812) 535-5162. Or, e-mail

kgotshall@smwc.edu.

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