Prescriptive Memories in Grief and Loss: The Art of Dreamscaping

What contribution is the book making? It introduces Dreamscaping, an exciting new approach in grief and loss therapy that uses imaginal resourcing and re-scripting, mental simulations and focusing on felt sense, memory reconsolidation and photo-based art to shift the focus from “what do you miss?” to “what gives you joy?” Rooted in recent discoveries about how the emotional brain encodes new memories, this book describes how to create a resource-rich “prescriptive memory.” It begins with the therapist collecting a client’s most positive felt memories about one’s self, a person, place, or thing they wish to return to. Together, therapist and client then reimagine these good or good-enough memories (or memory fragments) until a “prescriptive memory” with a new narrative infused with novelty and emotional meaning takes shape. Once assessed and refined, the prescriptive memory can then be given form as an image-based art object that serves as a resource or impetus for re-engagement with the world.
   
   Why people should read it: Dreamscaping reaches grieving individuals shut down emotionally and less easily
   engaged in psychodynamic work; who don’t have the ability or energy to engage with art therapy materials, or who are fixed in their painful or negative foci. It not only creates a place where “affection and moments of connection can exist in another time and place just in the imagining of it”— but also presents a new language to use with clients who are stuck or feel they have exhausted their last reserves of energy.
   
   The book appeals to: Clinicians using strength-based, imaginal approaches who recognize the power of short-term creative interventions or are interested in learning more about how to use them in clinical practice. This book will also appeal to narratively-inclined therapists who have been looking for an approach that is more about tracking positive affect, positive existences and preferred futures; art therapists excited about co-creating with clients a tangible manifestation of their prescriptive memory in any image-based modality of their choosing (e.g., photo collage, photomontage, figures or shrines) and bereavement and spiritual care counselors seeking to incorporate innovative approaches into their work with individuals or groups.

http://www.artforyoursake.com