The Cairn Project: Healing Through Clay

I just started working with the clay, and then I saw it was becoming a protective angel,” says John, a Vietnam War veteran who struggles long after war’s end to come to terms with his battlefield experiences. John is one of many troubled people—ex-military, Middle East refugees, sexual abuse victims, and more—who have benefited from clay workshops created and led by Corinne D. Peterson, a Chicago ceramic artist.

Peterson, who was a practicing psychotherapist for many years, began to work with clay in 1986 as she underwent Jungian psychoanalysis that focuses on the subconscious. As she tells it, she discovered clay as a way to visualize her inner experiences. She says “I was amazed by