Mestiza consciousness and Expressive Arts Therapy?

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During the past few years I have been working on examining the connection between expressive arts therapy and the concepts of decolonialization, critical race theory, engaged pedagogy, and other emerging anti-oppressive practices and theories (such as queer theory, mestiza consciousness, social justice work and feminist theory, to name just a few). 

I feel as though I am beginning to curve back around to my research on expressive arts therapy and social action and this has coincided with a movement within the creative arts therapies in examining critical pedagogy.  I was asked to submit a small piece for a new journal (blog) on Critical Pedagogy in the Arts Therapies - and am proud to have resurrected a piece I began on sabbatical a few years ago.

Expressive arts therapy and mestiza consciousness: Practicing in a "wild zone" is an adaptation of a larger piece I have been working on that hopes to invite expressive arts therapists to engage in a process of "self-definition."  A process I feel is so important given that within the larger scholarship in arts therapies I feel we are practicing at a time when we are being continuously subsumed under larger creative arts therapy and counseling discourses.  There's more to come I hope - but please check out my piece! 

And feel free to leave a comment!


Image: Photo of the “Erased” Border. Reprinted from the website of Ana Teresa Fernández by permission of the artist.

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