Asian Art Therapists

This book explores Asian art therapist experiences in a predominantly white professional field, challenging readers with visceral, racial, and personalized stories that may push them far beyond their comfort zone. Drawing from the expertise and practices of Asian art therapists from around the world, this unique text navigates how minority status can affect training and clinical practice in relation to clients, co-workers, and peers. It describes how Asian pioneers have broken therapeutic and racial rules to accommodate patient needs and improve clinical skills and illustrates how the reader can examine and disseminate their own biases. Authors share how they make their own path-by becoming aware of the connection between their lives and circumstances-and how they liberate themselves and those who seek their services. This informative resource for art therapy students and professionals offers non-Asian readers a glimpse at personal and clinical experiences in the White-dominant profession while detailing how Asian art therapists can lead race-based discussions with empathy to become more competent therapists and educators in an increasingly diversifying world.

Megu Kitazawa, MA, ATR-BC, LCAT, is a NY State Licensed Creative Arts Therapist and Board-Certified Art Therapist currently living in Berlin, Germany, and conducting individual art therapy consultations and workshops for the Japanese and English-speaking expats.

Introduction: Unsettling Matter of Race and Ethnicity; Chapter 1: History Matters: Stories About Identity, Culture and Art Therapy; Chapter 2: The Portrait of a Color-Blind Art Therapist: A Japanese Art Therapist Working with Minority Clients in NYC: Chapter 3: Returning to the Sacred Circle, Immigrant and Indigenous Allies: A Heuristic Perspective; Chapter 4: My Optional Practical Training Experience: My Perspective as a Japanese Art Therapy Student; Chapter 5: An Art Therapist's Perspective on Cultural Humility in Diverse Setting: A Personal Journey from India to the United States of America; Chapter 6: Between Melting Pots: A Filipino American Art Therapist and the Bean Project; Chapter 7: Unrealistic Expectations and Harsh Realities: Navigating Career Development as an Asian Art Therapist; Chapter 8: Find Lost Name; Self-Reflection on the Journey of Being an Art Therapist; Chapter 9: Interweaving Art, Therapy, and Cultural Diversity; Chapter 10: Intracultural Practice for Asian Art Therapists:"Are You One of Us, or Are You One of Them?"; Chapter 11: Possible Use of Art-Based Supervision in Japan; Conclusion: A Need for Cognitive Diversity in Multicultural Training; Index