'This space inside': An art-based autoethnographic exploration of the hysterectomy experience.

This article presents an art-based autoethnographic exploration of the hysterectomy experience from the perspective of a perinatal therapist recovering from elective abdominal hysterectomy for fibroids. Using a visual diary combining image-making, hand-stitching, and writing, four key themes are identified: navigating disruption, adjusting to a changed body, accommodating losses (termed "emerging into Otherhood"), and renewal through recovering an inner potential space. The account situates personal embodied and psychic responses within broader cultural and sociopolitical discourses on femininity, highlighting the complexity of identity shifts beyond physical recovery. The article emphasizes the value of art-based methodologies both as a research tool and therapeutic process to hold and integrate the multifaceted experiences of women post-hysterectomy.