Intersectionality and the Arts Psychotherapies advocates for contextualising of clinical thinking and experience within a social and political framework that acknowledges the importance of intersectionality. Bringing reflections on their own identity and their professional knowledge to the work, creative therapists address both practical work with clients and the theory behind these therapeutic practices. A call to reflexivity allows the reader to consider their own position as a practitioner. These chapters will challenge and develop thinking on intersectional identities. Beyond the individual, the book demonstrates the need to embed knowledge of intersectionality in the profession at large. Experienced practitioners write from diverse perspectives across the arts psychotherapies, exploring how structures of power, privilege and prejudice influence practice and outcomes.
Jessica Collier is an art psychotherapist and clinical supervisor working with women in the female prison estate and women and men with complex personalities in the criminal justice system. She lectures nationally and internationally on forensic art psychotherapy and has published widely, focusing on trauma and unconscious re-enactments in forensic institutions and wider society. Jessica is co-convenor of the Forensic Arts Therapies Advisory Group, visiting lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire and senior lecturer at the University of Roehampton. She is co-editor of the International Journal of Forensic Psychotherapy. Corrina Eastwood is a practicing artist, activist and art psychotherapist. She has worked in a variety of settings including schools, hospitals, homeless hostels, therapeutic communities and charities. She is founder of the not for profit feminist arts organisation Sweet 'Art which has to date hosted over forty art exhibitions and projects privileging the voices of women and marginalised groups and exploring important social issues through the arts. She has published academically on working with women with a BPD diagnosis from a feminist perspective in art psychotherapy and has worked at the Hertfordshire University as a visiting lecturer. In 2017 she founded the feminist art psychotherapy charity Outskirts with an aim to work with a focus on survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault. She also currently works as an art therapist and supervisor in private practice.
Foreword Savneet Talwar Introduction Jessica Collier and Corrina Eastwood Chapter One Intersectional Reflexivity: Art psychotherapy practice and self Corrina Eastwood Chapter Two Colonialised Attachment: A dramatherapy perspective Wabriya King Chapter Three Knowing and Acting: Intersectionality and countertransference in clinical work S.J. Langer Chapter Four Skin to Paper: The body in art psychotherapy Georgina Evans Chapter Five "Haven't You Done Well": From working class to class-blind Sarah Furneaux-Blick Chapter Six Snaky Crazy Lady and the Air Head Princess: Considering colourblind intersectionality and normative unconscious processes in psychodynamic art psychotherapy Corrina Eastwood Chapter Seven Consent and the-rapist: Positions of power in art psychotherapy with a sex offender Jessica Collier Chapter Eight Therapists Too: Disclosure and solidarity at the crossroads of art therapy, survivorhood and activism Sejal Chad Chapter Nine Intersecting Identities in a War Zone: A music therapist's perspective on group work in West Bank, Palestine. Eleni Tsolka Chapter Ten Culturally Appropriate Art Therapy in the Sikh Community: Theory and practice Jaspal Kaur Lotay and Corrina Eastwood Chapter Eleven A Black Therapist Sees Herself: Exploring sameness and difference in the dramatherapy room Kairo Maynard Chapter Twelve "Men Just Hit You": Sexism and internalised misogyny in art psychotherapy with female offenders Jessica Collier Chapter Thirteen Disabled and LGBTQ+: A music therapy perspective Naomi Rowe Chapter Fourteen On the Outskirts: Founding an intersectional feminist art therapy charity Corrina Eastwood, Gillian Datien, Charlotte Ellston and Noa Yeheskel Chapter Fifteen Approaches to Intersectionality through inclusive group dialogues across identities within the informal and Higher Education sector: Traversing the unknown Hayley Berman Contributors
A call for creative therapists to consider the impact of identity and culture on practice and address a central issue in all counselling practice
An exceptional and timely book which succeeds in unpacking the complexities of intersectional thinking within art psychotherapy, while at the same time demonstrating its role in challenging the unconscious bias, privilege and occlusions that can often deny authentic connection. The value of art as a tool for building recognition across the multiple identity positions that we each inhabit is explored throughout in case studies that exhibit remarkable scholarship, intimacy and deep compassion. -- Dr Daniel Baker, is an artist, curator and researcher. Former Chair of the Gypsy Council and author of publications including WE ROMA: A Critical Reader in Contemporary Art, Ex Libris and FUTUROMA The richness of the varied contributions to this much-needed text interrogating intersectionality provides a wealth of experiences for the reader. The wide range of contexts, discourses and varied clinical work explored here will be invaluable to all arts therapists as they seek to develop their practice and frameworks in contemporary society. The importance of this text cannot be overestimated; it is both innovative and timely, and will inspire practitioners from a broad range of professions. Whilst being challenging, it invites the reader to articulate their own position in the work as well as that of their clients. -- Dr Elizabeth Coombes, Course Leader for MA Music Therapy at the University of South Wales In this comprehensive text, Intersectionality and the Arts Psychotherapies, the contributors bring together multiple personal perspectives that acknowledge and honour the intersections of social and historical oppression in our work as therapeutic practitioners who use the creative arts, the body and metaphor. The reader will be challenged in their understanding of intersectionality and empowered in their practice as contemporary arts psychotherapists. -- Eugene Ellis is an Integrative Arts psychotherapist and is also the Director and founder of the Black, African and Asian Therapy Network (BAATN) The contemporary moment is providing ample evidence that mental health problems can only be fully understood by factoring the effects of inequality, marginalisation and disempowerment. The societal structures driving those experiences have antecedents beyond any individual and so affect both the users and providers of therapy services. This much needed book challenges any presumption that professional therapy training might confer practitioners with some kind of blanket immunity to the historical forces at play in our cultures. Instead it proposes an update to the professional model where the therapist foregrounds their own unique points of intersection within those historical forces. This auto-ethnographic approach to cultural competence avoids problematic generalisations about groups. The reader is instead offered a process whereby the arts can be used to reflexively identify cultural assumptions which might blind therapists to opportunities for more effective therapeutic encounters. I welcome the transparent authorial style used by the arts therapist practitioners who demonstrate how social ownership can form the basis of a coherent therapeutic stance for our turbulent times. -- Dr Neil Springham is a Consultant Art Therapist, Executive Director of Therapies and Patient Experience at Oxleas NHS foundation Trust, London.
