Abstract
Current emphasis in American social work on evidence-based practice moves the profession away from its historic community-based roots. Today, complementary and alternative medicine approaches, such as mutual-help groups, enjoy widespread popularity, especially among women. Yet, in exclusively female mutual help groups, qualitative research on extratherapeutic healing benefits-those not resulting from
evidence-based treatment models or techniques-is limited. This qualitative study, utilizing grounded theory method, explores the extratherapeutic healing experiences of women (n=12) who participate in the Women's Wisdom Project (WWP). This exclusively female mutual-help group utilizes art to facilitate participants healing from physical, psychological, social, and transitional challenges. Findings revealed that three components: healing community, healing environment, and healing process all interact powerfully to contribute towards beneficial outcomes in WWP participants. Leaders' roles and participants' backgrounds also affected women's healing experiences in this group.