Abstract

A significant amount of people who give birth are affected by traumatic birth experiences (TBE), but research shows that there is potential for achieving posttraumatic growth (PTG) following such events. There is growing evidence of art therapy’s efficacy within treatment for survivors of trauma, and promising research demonstrates the potential for art therapy interventions to facilitate and measure PTG. This arts-based heuristic inquiry explores what insights a student-researcher with lived TBE can gain about posttraumatic growth. The arts-based component of this project consists of five artworks and writings created through the Open Studio Process (OSP), and a painting made in the creative synthesis phase of the heuristic inquiry. The project uses Reflexive Thematic Analysis to analyze the data sets generated through the OSP. Key findings of this inquiry suggest that a) the OSP may facilitate and contain deliberate rumination about TBE, with potential to produce insight about PTG; and b) there was a struggle with notions of success and failure throughout all OSP rounds that were connected to deeply held core values and negative core beliefs. The results could inform possible future art therapy intervention research integrating the OSP, and possibly aspects of PTG, with exploration of TBE. The struggle with ideas of success and failure in childbirth carries significance for countertransference for art therapists with lived experience of TBE who work with clients who have given birth.