An art therapy education response: linking inequality and intersectional identity

Background: An account of how one Art Therapy training course links information about inequalities with the theory of intersectionality. In trying to understand intersectionality, the course community questions how clients and therapists respond to and experience health inequalities and discrimination. For both, there may be the pain of being ‘othered’ and the effects of unconscious privilege. Nevertheless, there are examples to be celebrated of how some people manage to use their identity in moving forward.

Context: Bizarrely, how identities link to socio-political conditions is not readily acknowledged within therapy professions. The focus of therapy has tended to stay on the inner world. Also, since the end of the second world war, there has been a gradual decoupling of political approaches concerned with social justice and the redistribution of resources and political approaches concerned with identity recognition.

Approaches: When health inequalities and identity issues became sharply visible during the Covid 19 pandemic, the profession responded with adaptations to its educational and therapeutic work. It is possible to see how clients, students, art therapists and colleagues adapt, consult and collaborate. The paper provides descriptions of students' adapted and collaborative practice.

Outcomes, conclusions and implications for research: The use of culture, art and identity-aware supervision in art therapy are ways of developing our understanding of health inequalities and intersecting identities. The research implications for Art Therapy are that generic knowledge of research about discrimination and glaring health inequalities is a valuable foundation for research in our discipline.

Plain-language summary: This paper discusses how one Art Therapy training course links information about health and social inequalities with ideas about intersecting identities. The course community explores and questions how clients and therapists experience health inequalities and discrimination. There are discussions about the pain of feeling unwanted and the response of people who are not conscious of their inherited privileges simply because they are born into specific societal structures. Whilst recognising that feelings about identity may be painful and a source of shame, the course also considers how it is that some people manage to acknowledge and use self-reflection about their less privileged identities in moving forward. It is strange how the effects of social and health inequalities are rarely acknowledged within psychological disciplines, including art therapy. That seems to be because the focus of therapy has tended to stay on the inner world. Also, since the end of the second world war, there has been a gradual shift in political approaches concerned with social justice and the redistribution of resources and political approaches concerned with identity recognition. When existing health inequalities and identity issues became sharply visible during the Covid 19 pandemic (the Health Foundation, 2020) the profession responded with adaptations that took its educational and therapeutic work online. There is hope because it is increasingly possible to see how clients, students, art therapists and colleagues consult one another and collaborate over adaptations in therapeutic approaches. The paper provides descriptions of some adapted student practices from placements. The use of culture and art, together with supervision in art therapy, are ways of developing our understanding of health inequalities and our intersecting identities. Nevertheless, the pace of social and cultural change can be slow, sometimes moving forward and sometimes backwards. The research implications for the Arts Therapies are that broad knowledge of research about discrimination and glaring health inequalities is valuable in the push for change. Also, research from other disciplines is often the foundation on which the research contribution of the Arts Therapies in this area and others can be built.