“MATERNAL HOLDING” – Dr Ariel Moy contributes new understandings through Arts Based Research findings

“the creative exploration of holding is a simple, everyday way of accessing significant relational stories, purpose and loving connection or what I call, the mother/child ‘us’”

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I was delighted last year when Routledge Publishers invited me to review a new book proposal by Dr Ariel Moy:

An Arts Therapeutic Approach to Maternal Holding:

Developing Healthy Mother and Child Holding Relationships.

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This wonderful new book has now been published, congratulations Ariel.

Motherhood is a universal topic. Ariel’s book is important in that it offers a new perspective through which to understand maternal holding and its implications for the health and well-being of mothers and children.This book expands ideas within the field and I predict it will be part of a movement in which the intersubjective Mother/Child ‘Us’ emerges as of key importance in informing current and future theory, research, education and practice.

“Maternal Holding” will interest practitioners of diverse disciplines who work with mothers and babies. These might be primary health workers in mother/baby units or maternal/child health centres, and therapists or support workers working with mothers in settings such as rehabilitation centres, prisons and family violence services. This book is valuable both as an example of art based research and for the findings it contributes to the field of motherhood studies.

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In the introduction, Ariel writes,

“Holding our children, physically, psychologically, and emotionally, is a common experience for many mothers.

Utilising an arts-based research approach, a group of mothers and I explored what it was like for us to hold our children in infancy through to, and including, adulthood.

What we found was surprising.

In images, sensation, emotions, and words, we noticed an intertwining of mother and child’s relational needs and stories.

During optimal moments of holding, we also experienced a strange and precious expansion of self with our children.

Including an exploration of holding and relationship, suggestions for arts therapeutic approaches and avenues of exploration, this book hopes to support practitioners working with mothers and their children.

In the evolving, meaningful, and often challenging mother/child bond, the creative exploration of holding is a simple, everyday way of accessing significant relational stories, purpose and loving connection or what I call, the mother/child ‘us’.”

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Image from Chapter 9. Figure 9.1

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The particular advantage of this book is that it includes visual artwork to present and communicate qualities, nuances and sensibilities of maternal holding and the mother/child ‘Us’ via aesthetic means, enabling a more holistic understanding of the subject than other available texts.

The emphasis on qualitative understandings make this a unique book for practitioners, especially those who might be facilitating the development of healthy holding relationships between mothers and children. This text will help provide evidence for a range of practices, and create a context within which these practices can be valued and resourced.

Dr Ariel Moy

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Dr Ariel Moy is an Art Therapist in private practice. She holds a special interest in mothering experiences and mother/child relationships. She’s also a writer, artist, and a teacher at The MIECAT Institute, Melbourne. She invites mothers to share their stories of maternal holding and blogs at her website www.holdingmatters.com This is her first book. 

An Arts Therapeutic Approach to Maternal Holding is available to purchase here.

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The 2022 Creative Mental Health Forum and Self Care Retreat welcomes Dr Ariel Moy as a presenter.

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