Touching the Loss and Creating a New Sense of Being in Clay Field Therapy: A Longitudinal Phenomenological Research
Author/s: Saba Başoğlu Yavuz
DOI: http://doi.org/10.37898/spiritualpc.1575609
Year: 2025 Vol: 10 Number: 1
Abstract
Clay Field Therapy is a trauma-informed Sensorimotor Art Therapy rooted in haptic perception. It emphasizes the tactile relationship between the individual’s hands and materials, providing a non-verbal avenue for deep therapeutic processing. The combination of three fundamental materials creates Clay Field: a rectangular wooden box filled with smooth clay and warm water. This longitudinal phenomenological study aims to examine the experiences of individuals undergoing Clay Field Therapy to process complex grief. The participant group consists of four women, aged between 30 and 45, who sought Clay Field Therapy due to their unique experiences of loss and grief. Data was collected through participant-led, in-depth, process-oriented, and semi-structured interviews conducted after the first and twelfth Clay Field sessions of each participant. Longitudinal Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was employed to explore in detail how participants attributed meaning to their experiences, changes, and transformations during Clay Field Therapy. Four superordinate themes emerged from the analysis of data: beyond words, from nothingness towards existence, from tangible experiences towards a transformative spiritual experience, and a comprehensive sense of being. Clay Field Therapy facilitates not only the resolution of the grief process but also enables profound existential work and spiritual growth. This process, in which individuals reconstruct the meaning of life through their tactile encounters in the Clay Field, has been conceptualized as “Embodied Reflection.”