Queer Worldmaking in Sex-Positive Art Therapy: Radical Strategies for Individual Healing and Social Transformation

Abstract

Queer worldmaking (QWM) in art therapy offers liberatory sex-positive interventions and modes of critical inquiry that affirm the lives, imaginations, and pleasures of all who enter the studio. The authors provide three major strategies for QWM in art therapy. A queer ethos of care decenters cis-heteronormativity by embracing the diversity of sexuality and gender identity and expression as valuable ways of knowing. A radically inclusive studio prioritizes queer and trans pleasure in establishing physical, psychological, and imaginal safety. Facilitating critical connections with(in) art and the community centers LGBTQ + historical strategies of care for healing and social justice. Art therapists can unite in the shared pursuit of making queer(er) worlds for individual healing and social transformation.

Keywords:

• Queer worldmaking
• sex-positive art therapy
• gender-affirming care
• transformative justice
• art activism

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zachary D. Van Den Berg

Zachary D. Van Den Berg (he/they), MA, ATR-P, LPC-A, is an art therapist at CommunityArts, LLC, Austin, TX.

Mikey Anderson

Mikey Anderson (they/he), MAAT, LCPC, is an artist-art therapist working in community mental health in Chicago, IL.