Quilting a Connection: The Use of Quilting in Group Art Therapy to Promote Well Being for Older Women
This qualitative research paper explores the potential of quilting, and the quilting process, as a therapeutic tool for promoting the well being of older women within the context of a group art therapy setting. Social isolation acts as a prominent risk factor for the population of older women in Canada, and is influenced and incited by the social stigma and perspective that older women are an economic and societal burden to Western society. Through an integrative methodology, involving a theoretical approach with elements of arts based inquiry, this research paper reviews and analyzes the literature focused on quilting, group art therapy, and the well being of older women. Additionally, this author's personal learning experience about quilting, in context with being an art therapy student, is explored through the engagement of the quilting process as an arts based inquiry. This personal learning is discussed in correspondence with the main findings from the analyzed and synthesized literature, and as a way to better inform the explored concept of the use of quilting for well being within an art therapy context. Connection with the body, connection with womanhood, and connection through generativity emerged as main themes. These findings are discussed in attempt to distinguish quilting as an appropriate and therapeutic tool for fostering and promoting the well being of older women.