A Mountainscape of Varied Perspectives (Un paysage de montagne aux perspectives variées)

In line with Sturgen and Cartwright’s (2001) perspective that “[t]he meanings of each image are multiple, created each time it is viewed” (p. 25), the various collection of articles in Volume 34, Issue 2 will be described in an unfinished mountainscape of Banff, Alberta (see Figure 1). Struggling to connect the collection of diverse topics within this open issue, a symbolic artwork seemed to best encapsulate the different and important topics. A single image portrays simultaneity, meaning conveying different ideas all at the same time (Chilton et al., 2015; Gerber & Myers-Coffman, 2017), while symbolic images can capture the “ineffable, the hard-to-put-into-words” (Weber, 2008, p. 5).

Figure 1. Mountain peaks among a moving sky (Toll, 2021).

In this painting (Figure 1), an array of mountains, representing different hurdles for the profession and challenges participants are seeking art therapy for, are jutting out of the ground. The peaks are all competing with the others to be seen, understood better, improved, and written about during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the pandemic swept throughout Canada and the world, there were so many diverse needs that were bubbling below the surface, which have emerged and are discussed throughout this issue. For example, it is important to note that the effects of COVID-19 “has wreaked disproportionate havoc in marginalized racial/ethnic communities” (Sabatello et al., 2020, p. 187).

This mountainscape of multilayered topics represents how I conceptualize the varied articles in Volume 34, Issue 2 within a rugged, epic, and natural Canadian landscape. Many of these articles were written before the pandemic began, when people could easily travel, be together, provide training, and experience varied professional interactions. Some of the articles experienced inevitable delays in publishing due to the hurdles presented by the pandemic. It is important to note, particularly due to the prevalence of women in the field of art therapy, that gender disparities in publications have increased during the pandemic. Preliminary studies have shown that females have been less likely to publish manuscripts and begin new research projects than men since COVID-19 emerged (Dorn et al., 2020; Ribarovska et al., 2021). Publication statistics are unknown regarding non-binary or transgender authors.

After more than a year of coping with COVID-19 within institutional, professional, academic, familial, and on personal levels, it is a pleasure to publish the following manuscripts that discuss supporting neurodiverse people from different backgrounds (Lewchuk et al., 2021; Nel et al., 2021), the lived experience as a professional art therapist who experiences discrimination due to her disabilities (Hewitt-Parsons, 2021), eco-art therapy with youth (Bourassa, 2021), and expressive arts slam poetry from youth (Huard, 2021). Within the painting, the river sweeping through the middle of the landscape represents the art therapy profession’s continuous push to improve our practices and knowledge of art therapy in order to provide better care, and to increasingly understand the systemic and institutional barriers to provide antioppressive and anticolonial art therapy support with cultural humility (Bal & Kaur, 2018; Jackson, 2020). More research from art therapists from different ethnic, tribal, racial, spiritual, developmental, abled, gendered, linguistic, and diverse lived experiences must be published (Jackson, 2020; Karcher, 2017). More voices must be heard, be echoed, and reverberate loudly through from the mountaintops. Finally, the light green areas in the landscape are highlighted by sunbeams that emerge through the dark clouds, representing hope and resilience.

Articles: Happenings in Montreal

Diversity is an important theme in this issue, particularly supporting people who are neurodiverse and confronting ableism within the mental health profession. In the Articles section, Lewchuk et al. (2021) describe a qualitative and phenomenological research conducted with Concordia University, which partnered with the Center for the Arts in Human Development (CAHD). The authors acknowledge that the digital divide (van Dijk, 2020) can hinder neurodiverse adults from participating in art therapy. Therefore, this qualitative study looked at the barriers for people with neurodiversity and disabilities who are transitioning from in-person art therapy to digital art therapy, by asking “how do adults with developmental disabilities (DD) currently use digital media and the digital world?” to make recommendations on how art therapists can support equitable access to digital art therapy (Lewchuk et al., 2021, p. 55). Although this study had stopped early because of the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the research results that outline the lack of digital inclusion and “unnecessary barriers” is important because of the sudden shift to digital, online, and virtual art therapy during the past few years (Biro-Hannah, 2021).

The second article of this issue, published in French, also takes place in Montreal and describes an expressive arts therapy phenomenological study, where Huard et al. (2021) invited youth gang members to create a compact disc and write rap and slam (spoken word) poetry lyrics to support the Knowledge Holders of their lived experiences in expressing issues and connecting with one another. The evocative and meaningful texts were analyzed phenomenologically, where key themes, such as life being perceived as a battle and regrets influencing life changes, have emerged.

Art Therapy in Practice: Art therapy across spaces and places

Both Art Therapy in Practice articles center on place and space in different ways. Bourassa (2021) describes an eco-art therapy retreat program with youth receiving mental healthcare at The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Center through the Youth Partial Hospitalization Unit. The author describes the process of encouraging the participants to create meaningful artworks within local greenspaces and includes qualitative feedback from participants regarding their experiences. To celebrate their time together and share their stories of strength, the artworks created during these retreats were exhibited on World Mental Health Day at The Ottawa Art Gallery.

In the second article, Nel et al. (2021) recount, through the methodology of collaborative autoethnography, their ambivalences, questions, and hurdles as “sojourners” with different cultural, ethnic, and linguistic identities who are working internationally within Sudan. The authors explore their subjective and felt experiences while collaborating on a three-step art therapy capacity-building program to support neurodiverse children. The authors describe how “[b]eing attentive to our positionality as sojourners (Carlier & Salom, 2012) remained a humbling inner-guide as we attempted to introduce an arts therapy program that was respectful and supportive to the needs of the community” (p. 89).

Soundings

It is important and meaningful to continue to critique the mental health profession and medical models that have influenced professionals’ preconceived notions, including within the field of art therapy (Talwar, 2016). In the Soundings section, Hewitt-Parsons (2021) asserts that often by, “viewing disability as a literal limitation, this term can … be understood as the socially imposed exclusions assigned to people with impairment” (p. 93). As a disabled art therapist, Hewitt-Parsons writes an autoethnographic account from a disability-informed framework while working in medical systems. Her evocative and personal accounts intend to inform the field about limiting able-bodied perspectives that are prevalent in the mental health field situated within the medical model. Asserting her voice and perspectives, she critiques how the traditional deficit-based medical model has influenced the way colleagues have treated the author by equating “disability” with “less valuable” while incorporating her insightful response artwork.

Looking forward

Although none of the articles in this issue speak to the COVID-19 pandemic directly, the virus continuously influences our practices, research topics and potentials, and perspectives. All of the manuscripts have been influenced indirectly due to publication times and data collection restrictions. Lewchuk and colleagues (2021) research on adapting online artmaking had ended early because of the restrictions, while international travel from diverse countries to Sudan to provide training and support would have been a challenge as well for Nel et al. (2021). If I were to create a map of the interconnections between this issue’s articles, many parallels would emerge, including support and advocacy for the disability studies field to reduce stigma. Developmentally, the articles focused on arts and expressive arts with people of varied ages and levels, spanning from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. It would therefore be compelling to begin to also look at senior populations in future issues, as they are often underrepresented in research, and particularly clinical trials (van Marum, 2020).

Looking forward to the upcoming years, our next special issue publication in 2022 will explore innovations and changes in art therapy pedagogies. The publication date for this particular issue has been extended due to more time needed for the collection to complete. The special issues for the end of 2022 and 2023 seek manuscripts on art therapists and clients cultivating hope during the pandemic and in times of social justice and environmental changes through the metaphor of “emergence,” as well as international examinations of antioppressive art therapy re-Indigenization and anticolonialism.

Among the background of the current pandemic, these meaningful topics feel suspended in the air. Internationally and within Canada, so many people’s lives have changed drastically since December 2019 and January 2020 (Giuntella et al., 2021), while also being called to continuously adapt to changing policies and circumstances, including art therapists and those seeking therapy. Moving forward, research during this period of time will be key in informing future art therapy practices as it continues to evolve.

Haley Toll, PhD Cand., CCC, RCAT, RP (inactive)
Canadian Journal of Art Therapy: Research, Practice, and Issues Editor-in-Chief
Memorial University of Newfoundland, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
[email protected] Toll, MA
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
[email protected]