At a time when medicine had largely dismissed women’s ways of knowing their bodies, Lovell charts her awakening inner wisdom through imagery, as she used both artistic expression and scientific, medical healing in partnership with each other. The healing from an encounter with life-threatening illness touches on Jungian theory, humanistic and existential theory, feminist theory and is therefore especially useful to students of art therapy and counseling. It is also useful material for those who are treating individuals who have experience a trauma, as well as those in medical settings. In Lovell’s words, “Symbolic healing is very much a coming together of ancient wisdom and its symbolic expression of our current life experiences.”

The film was made in 1990.

This video was formerly included in the Expressive Media Arts Therapies Films Collection distributed by Expressive Media Inc.