More than words: community ignition and actions for change

My involvement as one of the guest co-editors of this special issue, with its focus on intersectional thinking as a theoretical framework for art therapy, has been in the hope that the journal as a platform will be one that may bring important and differing perspectives to the wider profession. I hope that it may carve out an alternative space for thinking together that reaches beyond those of us who already practice in ways that challenge the normative from the peripherals of the profession. In addition, I hope that this issue may ‘call in’ these practitioners that may feel Othered yet who carry out important work that ethically considers the political in practice, names the societal inequalities that our clients may face in our work with them, and gives specific voice to the marginalised. Finally, I hope that this issue may bring conceptions of ‘the institution’ to us, creating wider community ignition, knowledge sharing and collaboration in honour of anti-oppressive practice and developing meaningful initiatives for change.

This existing work must continue its momentum gained following the inequalities that the Covid-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd highlighted for us all, and the social change activity that soon followed. As a profession we must not rest on our laurels but continue to support each other in this difficult but vital work. I suggest that as a profession we may need to create more spaces that are as safe as possible for us to all show up imperfectly and be willing to challenge our existing certainties and acknowledge our potential prejudices and privileges, gaining stamina and tolerance in feeling uncomfortable in honour of meaningful change.

My hope is that this special issue may be an example of that desired safe space and that its contributors may be supported in their bravery in being radically vulnerable through their writing, sharing their abilities to be transparent about uncertainties and to tolerate anxieties surrounding self-reflexive anti-oppressive practice and the naming of uncomfortable truths.

It is my belief that we harbour many desires as a profession to feel comfortable. To avoid acknowledgment of our prejudices and bias as we defend against the shame that may be evoked if we risk making mistakes. We can learn from our work with clients that meaningful change can rarely be achieved through feelings of shame. My sense is that within our profession shame must be individually and collectively listened to and acknowledged yet never held as a space of potential transformation. For example, acknowledging that we are not immune to experiencing feelings that evoke shame surrounding professional and academic rivalry and the existing hoarded and held power in our profession, can support us in this process.

Many of us continue to understand a need to interrogate our potential conscious and unconscious biases in our work with clients, to acknowledge our power and privileges and engage in meaningful processes of self-reflexivity regarding our own complex intersecting social as well as personal locations. These types of considerations must not only apply to our relationships with clients but also our colleagues who may feel Othered in our professional communities, organisations and institutions. Many of us also continue to adapt conceptions of therapist-activist work and explore the varying ways action for change can look in practice.

My involvement with the journal grew from my submission of White privilege and art therapy in the UK: are we doing the work? (2021) which lead to a strategic decision by the Board of Directors of the British Association of Art Therapists to review and change the journal’s remit to include opinion pieces to enable the article to be published. I then attended the journal’s peer review training, and this led to me being invited to become one of the guest co-editors of this special issue on intersectionality and art therapy.

In honour of my own therapist-activist work and as an extension of my guest co-editing role, I began to voice feelings that journal policy had the potential to better and more safely support the call for authors of this special issue and beyond. This led to my role as the journal’s Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion advisor. In collaboration with the Editor-in-Chief, Alex McDonald, with the support of the Board of Directors of the British Association of Art Therapists, I began to envision ways in which the journal could engage in a process of community ignition, work toward greater understanding of and actively challenge the barriers that those who may not fit the norm in academic publishing may face when wishing to safely join the journal community.

We wondered about ways in which space could be carved out for an explicit acknowledgment that racism and prejudice is pervasive in scholarly publishing and that those whose do not fit the dominant norm in the profession may face barriers and trauma when navigating these predominantly White, cis gendered, heteronormative spaces. We considered ways in which art therapy theory, practice and policy could be greater informed by differing perspectives on the normative epistemology or ontology in the profession.

I developed the journal’s 10-point Actions for Change (BAAT, 2021) including the delivery of training on anti-oppressive practices and inclusive language for peer reviewers and associate editors, in collaboration with Alex and a diverse group of members of the British Association of Art Therapists and colleagues that I approached to offer consultation based on the breadth of their lived and clinical experience. These colleagues have provided invaluable consultation giving time, considerable expertise, insight and emotional labour in honour of change. The Actions for Change were agreed by the journal Board and have since developed in parallel to this collaborative special issue, new lead associate editor roles for Equality Diversity and Inclusion, a pilot mentoring programme for new authors, and an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy and strategy developed by a working group of members of the British Association of Art Therapists from across the UK. My hope is that these efforts and our transparency surrounding this work has contributed to the level of diversity in perspectives of the contributors of this special issue.

In moving with trepidation from what has often felt like the outside to the inside of the profession and its institutions here in the UK and supporting those who feel similarly, I have felt paradoxical feelings of hope and solidarity as well as exhaustion, alienation and isolation. However, I can recognise I have also gained newfound understanding of my own difference amongst my professional community and how I may continue to greater understand power as a relational entity that can sometimes, with work, be subject to shifts and change.

In reviewing our progress with the Actions for Change for the journal in just under a year of their creation, we feel hopeful and have all grown to further understand the importance of meaningful, embedded and long-term goals to non-defensively learn, unlearn, reconfigure, dismantle if necessary, and build safe-feeling inclusive spaces for all in our profession.

With succession planning in place, I now continue as Equality Diversity and Inclusion advisor, contributing to the ongoing work of implementing the Actions for Change by the journal’s Board.