Healing Through Art: Ritualized Space and Cree Identity Volume 41

In Healing through Art Nadia Ferrara shows how art therapy has been used as a successful form of healing among Crees. The result of her work as an art therapist in communities in northern Quebec, the book provides a comprehensive analysis of the nature of her patients' experiences. Ferrara examines how individual experience of trauma is perceived, defined, and narrated by Cree individuals and discusses the role that Cree culture and Cree definitions of self play in therapy. Ferrara, who is accepted as a healer in Cree communities, shows how art therapy became a ritual for her patients, noting that Crees often associate art therapy and their experience in the bush and arguing that both constitute a place for them to re-affirm their notions of self. By including patient drawings and letting us hear Cree voices, Healing through Art gives us a sense of the reality of everyday Cree experience. This innovative book transcends disciplinary boundaries and makes a significant contribution to anthropology, Indigeonous studies, and clinical psychology.