Over three-quarters of American households contain someone who loves to craft . . . and for good reason. Hobbies like painting, sewing, scrapbooking, woodworking, and photography provide crafters with more than just a way to have fun or make gifts. Even at their most basic, they're potent art forms that can distract the mind, soothe the soul, and de-stress the body. "Craft to Heal" describes how creative pursuits can be transformed into healing arts, which, in turn, can transform you. Mind-body research now shows that crafts are good for our mental, physical, and spiritual health, so we no longer need to make excuses for doing what we love. The truth is, crafts aren't just enjoyable, they're downright therapeutic!
A welcome companion to anyone suffering a great loss—20 inspiring craft projects to help work through grief, from the author of Reinvention. For anyone seeking renewal and restoration during life’s transitions and after deep loss, Hope, Make, Heal offers a unique approach to healing: using one’s hands to mend the heart. The twenty craft projects provide ways to make tangible objects that signify the qualities one seeks on a healing path: strength, calm, release, and hope. Full of gentle encouragement, each project is easy to make and suitable for those times when our minds are preoccupied and our spirits are low. Grief and pain are universal experiences that touch everyone at one time or another. When we grieve, most of us reach for the steady hand of loved ones. But even if we're blessed with an understanding community, a deep sense of isolation comes with tragedy. No one else stands in our shoes. Rarely is there another person who can understand just what it means to be you. For maker and artist Maya Donenfeld, when faced with the trauma of a sudden and unexpected ending to her marriage of sixteen years, she yearned to find something that would allow her to focus and channel her powerful flood of emotions into something she could see and touch. Knowing that busy hands can profoundly nurture the heart and quiet the mind, she began making things to wear, carry, touch, and gaze upon—beautiful and expressive objects that were simple, intentional, and most of all, meaningful. The result is the collection of projects here. This book offers a unique approach to mending wounds with inspiring projects that integrate hand, heart, and mind with thread, ink, and more. The projects encourage renewal and restoration during life's transitions and after deep loss. Each one offers comfort and support and is designed to have a personal impact on the maker and those around them. It's a resource for personal healing and a gift for your friend in need.
Craft in Art Therapy is the first book dedicated to illustrating the incorporation of craft materials and methods into art therapy theory and practice. Contributing authors provide examples of how they have used a range of crafts including pottery, glass work, textiles (sewing, knitting, crochet, embroidery, and quilting), paper (artist books, altered books, book binding, origami, and zines), leatherwork, and Indian crafts like mendhi and kolam/rangoli in their own art and self-care, and in individual, group, and community art therapy practice. The book explores the therapeutic benefits of a range of craft materials and media, as well as craft’s potential to build community, to support individuals in caring for themselves and each other, and to play a valuable role in art therapy practice. Craft in Art Therapy demonstrates that when practiced in a culturally sensitive and socially conscious manner, craft practices are more than therapeutic—they also hold transformational potential.
An invaluable guide for those seeking to practice healing from a holistic Pagan viewpoint, this book is the first work of its kind aimed toward the neo-Pagan market. It is both academic and practical, including all the necessary information required to be a healer and specific sections designed to increase skills in several different healing modalities. The book gives the Western medical viewpoint along with complementary alternative therapies, and the subjects discussed include spiritual healing, massage and aromatherapy, shamanistic and magical healing practices, counseling (with tarot and past-life regression), and last rites. The authors explain what readers will need to learn to heal others effectively, while offering basic practical skills, making The Healing Craft a useful guide to anyone interested in complementary therapies.
The Healing Craft is the first book to present such a wide spectrum of the healing arts especially for Witches and pagans. The highlights of the book include topics such as: the history of healing with paganism and witchcraft; the aura and chakras; Astrology and healing; healing sanctuaries; healing wells and springs; the healing gods and goddesses; healing with magic; holistic massage; the tarot and divination; Shamanistic healing; herbalism; past-life regression; and the physical body and the mind. This book also addresses the rarely discussed but important aspects of: the ethics of healing, including code of ethics and conduct for healers and a healer's self-dedication ritual, and last rites, including pagan last rites ritual and bereavement counselling.
A creative journey of art, craft and DIY activities to restore your mind, furniture and home, written by a TV personality with a background in art therapy. Creativity has proven benefits to our mental health, and this unique craft book shows you how to make with memories, heal through art and repair your mind. Gemma Longworth shares a collection of 25 craft and DIY projects designed to soothe our minds during difficult times. For Gemma, art has brought her comfort and connection when she has experienced loss and grief, and her personal story is woven throughout her book. With warm encouragement, Gemma demonstrates that art is about having fun and leaving perfectionism at the door. Learn how to: use paper craft to create an origami box create a necklace out of buttons make a comforting cushion create pinch pots out of clay draw daily doodles for healing knit a chunky blanket learn embellishing techniques to mend clothes repair and upcycle furniture. With advice on how colour affects mood, how to create vision boards, how to weave memories into your projects, how to heal through meditative crafts such as drawing, and how repairing clothes and furniture can mend a broken heart, this book gives all the tools you need for your healing journey. Whether you're brand-new to crafting or a seasoned pro, turn trash into treasure with this restorative arts and crafts book.
In this book, Marie Bruce explains how angels and witches can work together to heal the mind, the body and the spirit, as well as how they can overcome problems and enhance any life.
WITCH DOCTOR : The Craft of Healing Just the stuff that works! Take control of the healing powers of food, herbs, homeopathy, essential oils, candles, crystals, ogham, runes, Reiki symbols, Wicca and Chi Kung. Health is a battle. Make preemptive strikes. With this book you will be "armed." The world of alternative medicine can be bewildering for people. I have had clients go to the health food store and get too confused to even buy the vitamins. I convey homespun knowledge in simple language. My goal is not to write a compendium of every herb and potion, but instead to offer a pharmacopeia that you can grow in your garden. An arsenal of a selected few products you can make or buy that will just work. I am not a doctor. I am a witch. At times I have affectionately been called a "witch doctor". The witch hunts branded those of us who used the age old herbal remedies as sorcerers and shrouded them in ignorant superstitions that still persist today.
